Time and the observer: The where and when of consciousness in the brain

TLDR

The standard Cartesian Theater model posits a single brain locus where multimodal information is registered and its timing determines subjective order, whereas the Multiple Drafts model proposes that discriminations are distributed across space and time without a single stream of consciousness. The study compares how the Cartesian Theater and Multiple Drafts models account for subjective timing. The authors analyze four phenomena—gradual apparent motion, the cutaneous rabbit illusion, backwards temporal referral, and delayed intention—to expose and dismantle the assumptions underlying the Cartesian Theater. The Multiple Drafts model better explains the phenomena, attributing subjective temporal order to interpretational processes rather than direct reflection of underlying events.

Abstract

Abstract We compare the way two models of consciousness treat subjective timing. According to the standard “Cartesian Theater” model, there is a place in the brain where “it all comes together,” and the discriminations in all modalities are somehow put into registration and “presented” for subjective judgment. The timing of the events in this theater determines subjective order. According to the alternative “Multiple Drafts” model, discriminations are distributed in both space and time in the brain. These events do have temporal properties, but those properties do not determine subjective order because there is no single, definitive “stream of consciousness,” only a parallel stream of conflicting and continuously revised contents. Four puzzling phenomena that resist explanation by the Cartesian model are analyzed: (1) a gradual apparent motion phenomenon involving abrupt color change (Kolers & von Grünau 1976), (2) an illusion of an evenly spaced series of “hops” produced by two or more widely spaced series of taps delivered to the skin (Geldard & Sherrick's “cutaneous rabbit” [1972]), (3) backwards referral in time, and (4) subjective delay of consciousness of intention (both reported in this journal by LIbet 1985a; 1987; 1989a). The unexamined assumptions that have always made the Cartesian Theater so attractive are exposed and dismantled. The Multiple Drafts model provides a better account of the puzzling phenomena, avoiding the scientific and metaphysical extravagances of the Cartesian Theater: The temporal order of subjective events is a product of the brain's interpretational processes, not a direct reflection of events making up those processes.