Derek Arnold

Sensory Processing

I am interested in how brain activity generates conscious perceptual experiences. Some of my specific interests are... 1) Imagined Sensory Experiences: People have different levels of ability to have imagined sensory experiences. Some people cannot evoke imagined experiences at all (aphantasics) while others have unusually intense imagined experiences (hyperphantasics / synaesthetes). What features of brain activity are responsible for these differences? 2) The human brain has been described as a predictive machine. How does it generate and implement the predictions that allow us to interact with our dynamic environment - so we can catch or avoid flying objects? 3) The human brain generates feelings of confidence whenever we make a perceptual decision. What features of sensory brain activity govern these feelings of confidence? 4) Humans can judge the relative timing of different events, and the extent of time that passes during an event. How do our brains encode time and timing? 5) In the human brain, different sensory analyses are often independent of one another, taking place in different brain regions and completed at different rates. How do these analyses combine to create subjectively unified experiences?