Explaining multisensory experience
pp. 365-373
in: Richard S. BROWN (ed), Consciousness inside and out, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
Our experience of the world involves a number of senses, including (but perhaps not limited to) sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. These senses are not isolated from one another. They work together, providing a robust and coherent awareness of our environment. Consider entering a good restaurant: one sees the décor and the other patrons, smells the pleasing odors wafting from the kitchen, hears the pleasant music and sound of conversation, feels the comfort of the seating, and, finally, savors the taste of the food. It seems obvious that, in some sense at least, our perceptual awareness of the restaurant is multisensory. Saying exactly what it is for perceptual awareness to be multisensory is more challenging than it appears, however.