In the "Strange Case of Julian September" arc in JLA, Atom was asked how, when he was smaller than a light particle, could he see.
Atom replied that "the five senses become something else entirely at [the] quantum level...your mind's doing you a favor, processing [everything] into familiar visuals so you won't go insane."
So, and I'm just throwing this out, what if they mind wiped Ray in such a way at some point that it interfered with his mind's ability to process information as above.
