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I will add about smell: smell is an indicator of the presence of molecules in the inhaled air that have a particular spatial structure (corresponding to the receptors in our nose).
Approximately the same can be said about taste, only the receptors on the tongue detect molecules of a characteristic structure dissolved in saliva.
If I understand correctly, the question is how neurons store information. This is a complex and still unsolved problem, but presumably the mechanism of memorization is based on the fact that the composition of intracellular matter changes in a group of neurons.
In this context, “sound” or “color” is an interpretation. Moreover, in the first approximation, it is the same thing – fluctuations. Only in the first case, the medium in which we are located (air, water) fluctuates, and in the second it is electromagnetic vibrations. And the spectrum of these vibrations (both the first and second) is very wide-much wider than the ranges to which our senses are “tuned”.
With sound, everything is very clear: a loud sound shakes the eardrum more strongly than a quiet one; a high sound shakes it more often than a low one. These vibrations are amplified and transmitted to the brain, which tells us (to itself?):”Oh, it's a sound, it's like this.” Sound recording works exactly on the same principle – a special device-a microphone-converts mechanical vibrations of the membrane into an electrical signal, which is already easy to record and save.
With light and smells, it's about the same story. Each light, each smell so excites the receptors that each time the brain receives specific information that can already be interpreted based on its experience: “Oh, it's strawberry, it's red, it smells like strawberry.” This is how the camera works, for example, so there's nothing supernatural about it either. Detectors for the presence, concentration, and type of substance in the medium have also been around for a long time.
Why so many letters? And here's what. You can't say that light or sound is a product of the interaction of neurons. These are quite real physical phenomena that can be recorded in other ways. And neurons are just a tool for delivering a signal, storing it, comparing it with other accumulated samples (that's right – every time there is a reconciliation with a huge database, albeit instantly) and, consequently, analyzing it. A complex and often incomprehensible tool.
There are actually two questions here. First, ” What physical media are perceived by the senses?”. However, physical media and processes themselves are neither light, sound,nor smell – these concepts refer to the perception of them by a living being. Hence the second question: “How is the subjective perception of smell, sound, etc. formed?”. The first question is answered by physicists, the second by neurophysiologists.
Any sensory sensor (sense organ) responds to a particular stimulus by generating electromagnetic pulses, which then circulate in the nervous system, are processed and analyzed by it. And only after this process is completed do they become a smell, light, sound, taste, tactile sensation.