The Temporal Gluing Problem of the Brain and the Paradox of Consciousness: Discretely Continuous?

Abstract

Phenomenologically speaking, we see ourselves as a unified ‘self’ in the center of the world. However, the mechanism behind creating this existential unity is not integrated. Different regions of the brain are distributed spatially and temporally in building the edifice of ‘conscious experience’. Putting aside the puzzle of spatial binding of consciousness, the brain functions in a temporally scattered way: conscious perception is discrete and temporally dispersed either in our inside world (different neuronal oscillations and also diverse transduction time) or the world outside (different speed of light and sound). Nevertheless, we perceive that we are moving in a sleek, continuous, and smooth tunnel of life and its events. How does the nervous system deal with these temporally scattered situations? Whence comes this fascinating experience of the smooth torrent of consciousness although its underlying neural mechanism is gappy, discrete, and bumpy? I argue that the answer lies in considering two important concepts which ultimately influence the integrity of brain organization and our flow of consciousness in time: Criticality of time and its relation to our brain and sensory information processing by the brain from the outside and inside world. I believe that it would be futile to concentrate on the puzzle of spatial binding without apprehending the temporal gluing problem. However, in recent years, there has been a tendency for understanding the spatial binding of consciousness, but the temporal binding has been underrepresented. This article is about revitalizing a crucial concept in understanding the conundrum of consciousness which is time.