The Experiential Space: Neural Binding of Predicates into a Unified Sensory Experience

This work introduces the concept of an "experiential space", a space of all possible sensory experiences. Indeed, an experience is represented as a point in "experiential space" and is given by the output of a "binding function" applied to the solution to a neural network coding equation, introduced in "Predicate Coding" (Bonal, 2025), for the sensory nervous system at a given time. This work aims to address the "Neural Binding Problem", understood here as explaining the unity of conscious experience yielded through the activity of a distributed system, such as the sensory nervous system. Finally, this model yields testable hypotheses, such as: (i) TMS-induced perturbations to regions responsible for processing a subset of perceivable predicates should selectively distort corresponding dimensions in experiential space ; (ii) The implementation of a Brain-Computer Interface directly interacting with the sensory nervous system, would yield phenomenal representations coming from the interface within the experience's coordinates ; (iii) The presentation of a gradually changing sequence of stimuli with diverse predicate values during a fixed time interval should yield a higher path-average speed within the experiential space, than the presentation of unchanging stimuli during the same fixed time interval ; (iv) The presentation of unchanging stimuli followed by a rapid change in stimuli with diverse predicate values during a fixed time interval should yield a higher distance speed within the experiential space, than the presentation of unchanging stimuli during the same fixed time interval.