Delayed Senses

I was thinking about some things the other day, and one of the questions I came upon is (simplified a little): What if all of our senses do not react simultaneously?

I mean, what if our mind doesn’t receive all of our environmental information at the exact same time–sound, touch, sight, taste, smell, etc.–and therefore delays our awareness in order to synchronize our perceptions in a way that seems correct (ex. sounds match up to moving mouths). I have absolutely no scientific evidence for any of this, but it is interesting to think about. In a way, most, if not all, of our daily decisions and actions are based on instinct and prior experience. So, if there was a delay between “real” time and how the individual experiences time, it wouldn’t really matter because our conditioned reflexes would take care of any immediate danger; and everyone else would have a similar delay anyway.

Does anyone think about this sort of thing?

I think it’s obvious that both our mind and our environment allow for delays in how we perceive information, however sensory information is received so fast, and our brains work so quickly that this delay (if any) probably isn’t of any real consequence at all.
As for all of our senses working simultaneously, I’m not to sure about my science when it comes to this, but I’d imagine it all happens at relatively the same time, given that different areas of the brain process different sensory information at the same time.

Have you ever touched something that was realy hot and it took a few seconds to actualy realise “Ouch, that’s hot.” I do it every now and then, but of course maybe it’s just me thats a little slow. :tongue:

Very good question.

Our senses don’t react simultaneously. The brain has to synchronize our perceptions. It’s scientifically proven. I can’t find again the recent article on a neuroblog where I read a way of desynchronizing perceptions. The experiment was like this:

  1. the subject pushes a button and a red light switches on.
  2. then the red light switches on later, say 0.1 second later. After 20 tries, the subject has the feeling it switches on in the same time that he pushes the button cause the brain has resynchronized both sensations.

If I remember well, it was funny cause it worked even when the light switched on before the pushing.

In a reverse maneer, the brain shortens time between cause and effect to enhance learning.

Interesting experiment Basilus; I would like to know more about it.

I think it’s not really simultaneously, but there is not a big difference between it either. Have you ever seen a movie where the sound was just a few seconds before the image, or just behind it? It’s annoying to watch, just because it doesn’t seem to fit.

It’s maybe like your eyes. You have an optic disc in your eye, but you don’t notice it. Your brain fills up the blank with the information the other eye gives. But even if you close one of your eyes you don’t notice it. Your brain fills up the gap. There are some experiments where you can prove with we have a gap and we can’t fill up the blank.

Our brain gets information from different senses and makes it as a whole. As long as the differences between the time you get the senses isn’t too big everything fits.

But you’re right we also have some reflex actions ie. if you hit right below your knee your leg will get up; you take your hands back when you feel warmth. Those things happen without your brain telling it you.

Heh, interesting.

My biggest question is now whether or not the human conciousness is delayed…although it is pretty much unanswerable. I guess it’s easy to say that reflexes are automatic and could operate without the use of concious observation. But then when you get down to specific things about the mind that most would consider “unique” or a facet of one’s own thinking, then it becomes harder to draw the line. I think that’s mainly because conciousness is viewed as the only foundation of free will, so if everyone knew that it was simply (or complexly) a system of neurons shooting off in various patterns or whatever, then the concept of “me and you” begins to dissolve into just a matter of preconditioned choices and behaviours.

I find it funny that we’re off exploring other planets and examining other galaxies, ascertaining their likeliness of containing intelligent life, etc. Yet we still don’t understand so many things about our own minds–we don’t even know why we dream at night. :smile:

This is delayed too. :smile: I’ve read another experiment about taking decision. It was in the french version of the Scientific American or something like that. A special edition about consciousness. It was very interesting.

Here was the experiment. Say you want to grasp a glass of water. Scientists have measured when you begin to move your arm and when the conscious part of your brain is activated (that is, when you decide to take the glass). Indeed, you move your arm before taking the conscious decision of doing this. Incredible but true! :grin:

Now I don’t know if it answers completely to your question. :wink:

You just know everything, don’t you? :tongue:

Although I guess that could be considered a reflex and the person’s conscious realization of it, rather than an action of will per se. For example, when the doctor hits your knee, it jerks up before you really realize it yourself. So, once you know what a glass of water is and you know that one is in front of you, then your natural thirst could cause a similar reaction.

I think what I meant is whether or not our consciousness itself could be considered a sense that must be synchronized with all our other senses. I was first thinking that they are brought together and then presented to our conscious mind, so that we can react and “choose” what we should do.

But maybe it is just the result of our neural connections and such, ie the output process of our brain’s calculations–similar to a computer and it’s monitor. There’s the harddrive and all the internal components, but all we experience is what is shown on the screen (our perception of the world). When you search for something on a computer, it goes through all the files and attempts to find what you are looking for, but it only presents you with what you searched for, because showing you a list of everything would defeat the purpose of the search function. So perhaps our consciousness is the development of an “evolutionary user-friendliness.” Catch my drift?

I guess the main reason I’m saying this is because there are many times where I’ve been able to remember things due to certain associations I’ve already made before, or I’ll be mentally relating too seemingly random things until I find out what it was I was trying to remember. For example, I try to remember what band I am hearing, and I begin thinking about “House, MD”, the show, for some reason. I’m not sure if the song was played on the show or not. I finally remember which band it was (Coldplay), and I realize that an actor on another show, MadTV, who looks like the actor who plays the main character in House, did a parody of a Coldplay music video that I happened to remember. Often times I’ll somehow try to use what I’ve forgot in a sentence. For instance, if I forget someone’s name, I’ll imagine saying, “Hey _____, how are you?” until I automatically fill in the blank. What’s weird is that it works well, but I’ve noticed that I will remember the name in some form–yet still be unable to spell it or pronounce it correctly until I’ve thought some more. The information, for once, actually feels as if it is just being filtered and fed to me from my subconscious.

In short, what if our consciousness is actually nothing but the result of our combined, synchronized senses/memory coming together–nothing more, nothing less. Our choices are simply the result of one telling the other what to do, and we just experience the middle and believe that we are controlling it. Or not. :content: