#649 - Anil Seth - Does Your Brain Hallucinate Conscious Reality?
Modern Wisdom
Our Consciousness' Relationship with Reality
Our consciousness does not passively reflect an objective reality, but actively interprets sensory information to create our perceptual experience. The brain forms predictions about the causes of sensory signals it receives, resulting in our conscious experience being shaped by internal models rather than direct sensory inputs. This process is likened to a controlled hallucination, where experiences are internally generated yet remain tethered to reality for the benefit of our behavior as complex organisms. Perceptual experiences are carefully regulated and controlled by the brain to be useful for us, emphasizing the importance of this active interpretation of reality.
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