Answering questions about consciousness by modeling perception as covert behavior
Frontiers in Psychology July 4, 2016 Gustav eMarkkula
A model-based analysis proposes that the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) may not be experiment-independent. The author argues that perception and action selection are fundamentally similar, referring to perceptual neuronal activations as covert behavior. A narrative behavior model is outlined, describing how the brain selects covert and overt behaviors to construct a multi-level narrative about what it is like to be the individual. The hypothesis suggests that we admit conscious experience of X when we find ourselves acceptably capable of performing narrative behavior describing X. The account reconciles conflicting empirical results from competing theories and suggests well-defined, experiment-independent NCCs are unlikely to exist. The analysis also discusses how an organism could adopt notions of subjective experience and explanatory gaps.