2025/11/30 by Frank Heile, Heile, Frank
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Embodied and Extended Cognition #FOS: Biological sciences #Memory and Neural Mechanisms #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #Philosophy and Theoretical Science
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.01073
openalex publication_date 2025/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/12/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We propose that consciousness arises from a single control agent, the Modeler-schema, which monitors the brain's Modeler as it constructs and updates the internal World Model. As part of that monitoring, the Modeler-schema generates experience by converting the Modeler's outputs into qualia, which are then used for model refinement. The Human agent comprises three cooperating agents-Modeler, Controller, and Targeter-each paired with a regulatory schema agent. Our core prediction is that the Modeler-schema performs a qualia-based consistency check during saccades and may issue bottom-up attention requests when discrepancies are found. To test this prediction, we propose a saccadic change-detection experiment that distinguishes Modeler-generated from Modeler-schema-generated bottom-up attention requests. Locating qualia in the Modeler-schema ties experience, including diffuse awareness (the full sensory field), to model regulation and refinement, explains aphantasia as a selective failure of recalled-sensory quale-conversion, and offers a testable proposal toward solving the Hard Problem of consciousness.