Felt Cognition: Parallel Micro-Eddies, the Stream of Thought, and the Open Problem of Experience
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) June 15, 2026 Young Jae Lee
A functional model proposes that thoughts arise from many parallel ionic 'eddies' igniting in the gamma band via a winner-take-most process, with the basal ganglia selecting one eddy through an action-selection loop, and dopamine reward-prediction error shaping which eddies are subsequently laid down. Serial selection bound within a theta frame constitutes the stream of thought. The body is included in the loop via interoceptive and autonomic signals entering the same selection-and-binding machinery, proposed as 'felt cognition'. The model specifies function, not experience; the hard problem of why any of this is felt is left open. A perturbational-complexity (PCI) marker of consciousness is reported as a negative finding.