Is Reality Even Real? Your Brain Constructs the World You Experience

What if you've never actually experienced objective reality?

In this episode of Decoded, Elisabeth McKay explores one of the most profound questions in neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology: How does the brain transform information into the world you believe you're experiencing?

From color and sound to pain, emotion, memory, and meaning, your brain isn't passively recording reality—it's actively constructing it.

This episode breaks down how perception is created through predictive processing, sensory translation, and childhood conditioning, revealing why two people can witness the exact same event and walk away with completely different experiences.

In this episode, Elisabeth explores:

Why your brain never directly experiences reality

How the brain constructs color, sound, touch, and pain

The neuroscience of perception and consciousness

Why atoms are mostly empty space

Predictive processing and Bayesian brain theory

Interoception and its role in anxiety and panic

Phantom limb syndrome and the brain's model of reality