The Relationship Between Sight, Vision and Our Senses

As neuroscientist David Eagleman once said, “Your brain is not only seeing, but interpreting.”

This statement captures the essence of vision—not just the ability to see, but the ability to understand and make sense of the world around us. Vision is a dynamic process, working in harmony with other sensory systems to shape our perception, movement and interactions.

Eagleman explores this idea in Episode 31 of his Inner Cosmos podcast, where he discusses The Dress illusion. Some people saw the viral dress as blue and black, while others saw it as white and gold. Why? Because our brains don’t just receive visual input—they interpret it based on past experiences, lighting assumptions and context.

In this blog, I am excited to share with you the distinction between sight and vision, how they work together to shape our perception and how vision collaborates with other senses—including proprioception, our sense of body awareness—to help us move through the world with ease and confidence.

This will be an easy read, though there are a few moments where I might geek out a little with my love for all things related to the body, brain, nervous system and visual system.

Sight is the physical act of seeing. A biological process that allows us to detect light and form images. Light reflects off objects and enters the eye through the cornea, passes through the lens and reaches the retina at the back of the eye.

The retina contains specialised cells called rods and cones that convert light into electrical signals. Rods help us see in dim lighting and detect movement while cones allow us to perceive colour and fine details.

These signals then travel through the optic nerve to the brain, where they are processed. Sight alone is just raw input—true perception begins when the brain interprets what we see.

Vision on the other hand is the brains interpretation of sight. Vision is so much more than just seeing—it is the ability to process and make sense of visual information.
Vision enables us to:

👀 Recognise objects and people

👀 Judge distances and depth

👀 Perceive movement

👀 Understand spatial relationships

This is where these words from Eagleman becomes relevant: “Your brain is not only seeing, but interpreting.”
Our eyes may capture an image, but it is the brain that assigns meaning to what we see. Vision is the bridge between raw sight and true understanding—the key to navigating and making sense of the world.  

Sight and vision are integral to almost everything we do. Here are a few ways that sight and vision support us in life.

Navigating the world relies on sight to detect obstacles and objects, vision to judge distances and spatial relationships and proprioception to enable confident movement without the need to constantly watch our feet.

A 9-year-old patient struggled with clumsiness and frequent falls. Despite having 20/20 sight, she had poor depth perception and proprioception. Through vision therapy exercises that combined eye tracking with movement-based activities, she developed stronger spatial awareness, leading to fewer falls and improved confidence in sports and daily activities.

Social connection relies on sight to observe facial expressions and body language, while vision interprets emotions, gestures and social cues, giving meaning to a simple smile or frown through the recognition and understanding of the brain.

A teenager who struggled with making friends at school because she often misinterpreted social cues. When playing with classmates, he would either miss subtle facial expressions or misread body language, leading to misunderstandings and frustration. His vision therapy focused on eye tracking exercises, emotional recognition games and guided role-playing scenarios, helping him strengthen visual processing and social awareness. Over time, he became more comfortable recognising when a friend was joking versus being serious, allowing him to engage more confidently in group activities and form meaningful friendships.

Learning and problem-solving depend on vision for reading, pattern recognition and information processing, while proprioception supports fine motor skills, handwriting, eye tracking and coordination, ensuring efficient cognitive and physical development.

A 7-year-old with reading difficulties was often fatigued after just a few minutes of reading. Her eye movements were inefficient, making it difficult to track words smoothly across the page. With vision therapy focused on improving convergence, tracking and visual memory, her reading fluency and endurance improved significantly.

Memory and recognition occur as our brains compare new images to stored visual memories, helping us recognise faces, places and objects, forming the foundation of learning and daily interactions.

An adult recovering from a concussion struggled with recognising familiar faces. Her brain injury affected her ability to process visual details quickly. Vision therapy, including exercises to enhance visual memory and pattern recognition, helped her rebuild these neural pathways and regain confidence in daily interactions.

Creativity and inspiration thrive as vision fuels our imagination and artistic expression. Whether interpreting a painting, admiring nature, or designing something new, vision allows us to process inspiration from the world around us.

A young photographer had trouble framing and composing shots due to difficulties with peripheral awareness and visual processing speed. She often misjudged distances or struggled to focus quickly on moving subjects. Her therapy plan included eye tracking drills, peripheral vision training, and dynamic focusing exercises, helping her develop a sharper artistic eye. Over time, she gained the ability to anticipate and capture stunning, well-balanced images with greater ease and precision.

While vision is a dominant sense, it does not function in isolation. One of its closest collaborators is proprioception, the bodies internal awareness of movement and position.

Proprioception is the ability to sense where our body is in space without looking. It allows us to:

🧠 Walk without staring at our feet

🧠 Reach for an object without missing

🧠 Maintain balance while moving

🧠 Control the force and precision of our movements

This ability comes from proprioceptors in our muscles and joints, which send constant feedback to the brain about body position and movement.

Without proprioception, vision would have to work much harder—imagine trying to walk while needing to look at your legs for every step. For many children with vision challenges, proprioceptive difficulties make visual tasks even more exhausting. 

Vision and proprioception collaborate in a constant feedback loop, helping us move efficiently and interact with our surroundings:

👀 Eye-hand coordination relies on proprioception for accurate grasping of objects while vision provides guidance; for example, when catching a ball, vision tracks its movement while proprioception adjusts hand position accordingly.

👀 Children with proprioceptive challenges may struggle reading and writing including difficulty with handwriting, letter spacing, or staying within lines because their body awareness is not fully developed.

👀 Balance and stability rely on the vestibular system, which integrates both visual and proprioceptive input; this is why closing your eyes while standing on one foot makes balancing more challenging, as the body must suddenly rely on proprioception alone.

👀 Navigating and exploring the world requires both vision and proprioception; vision detects obstacles while proprioception maintains balance and stability, preventing unnecessary stumbles.

Vision is a multi-sensory experience because it works alongside proprioception and other senses, making it far more than just sight.

Vision and touch work together as vision guides movement while proprioception fine-tunes coordination, allowing you to reach for a glass or cup of tea accurately and grip it without needing to watch your hand.

Vision and hearing work together to enhance communication. When we listen to someone speak, we use visual cues like lip movements and facial expressions to help interpret what they are saying, especially in noisy environments.

Vision and balance (vestibular system), located in the inner ear, work together to maintain stability. If you feel dizzy, closing your eyes often makes it worse because your brain loses the visual input that helps orient you.

Vision and interoception work together as interoception senses internal body awareness, such as hunger, thirst or fatigue, while vision provides external confirmation, like seeing food and realizing hunger or noticing a tired expression in the mirror.

As a vision therapist, I see firsthand how closely vision and the senses, including proprioception and interoception, are connected. Many visual challenges are about more than the eyes—they involve how the brain integrates sensory information.

A child struggling with reading and writing may have weak proprioceptive skills, making fine motor control difficult.

Someone with poor balance might rely too much on vision for stability, leading to eye strain and fatigue.

A patient recovering from a brain injury may need to retrain both visual and proprioceptive pathways to regain movement coordination.

In vision therapy, multi-sensory activities integrate visual tasks with movement, balance exercises, body awareness techniques, and nervous system regulation protocols. By enhancing coordination, stability, and overall visual function, these activities help patients perform to their full potential. These procedures and protocols strengthen the brain connections between vision and other senses, leading to more efficient visual processing.

Ultimately, vision is not just about seeing clearly—it is about interpreting, navigating, and engaging with life. It works in harmony with proprioception, touch, balance, and hearing to create a rich, multi-sensory experience.

To sum it up:

Sight is the physical process of detecting light. Vision is the brain’s interpretation of what we see. Proprioception supports vision by providing body awareness, balance, and coordination. Together, these systems allow us to move, learn and interact confidently and gracefully.

As a vision therapist, I witness this daily—vision is not just about seeing the world, but about understanding and thriving within it. Whether helping a child read with ease, an athlete improve coordination, or a stroke survivor regain independence, the power of vision extends far beyond sight alone.