Phenomenal consciousness in the split brain: A layered unity model
Azenet Liora Lopez Lopez preprint
Split-brain subjects, whose corpus callosum has been severed, can consciously perceive two different stimuli presented simultaneously in opposite visual fields but cannot compare them, suggesting a breakdown in the unity of conscious experience. This poses challenges for philosophical and scientific theories about consciousness. Existing models preserve the subject's unity as an agent but admit that their right- and left-side experiences are not phenomenally unified. A new model proposes that conscious experience has layers: local layers may be disunified, but global layers remain unified. This is supported by preserved attentional capacities in split-brain subjects, which connect phenomenal unity to attention and explain how right- and left-side experiences can be integrated at a higher level.