Law of specific nerve energies

The law of specific nerve energies is a principle in sensory physiology first proposed by Johannes Peter Müller in 1835. It states that the nature of perception is defined by the pathway over which the sensory information is carried. Hence, the origin of the sensation is not important. Therefore, the difference in perception of seeing, hearing, and touch is not caused by differences in the stimuli themselves but by the different nervous structures that these stimuli excite. For example, pressing on the eye elicits sensations of flashes of light because the neurons in the retina send a signal to the occipital lobe. Despite the sensory input's being mechanical, the experience is visual.

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