Faculty of Philosophy and Philosophy of Science, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders (DSGZ), University Hospital of Munich, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
Multisens Res. 2020 Jun 25;34(3):261-280. doi: 10.1163/22134808-bja10026.
Should the vestibular system be counted as a sense? This basic conceptual question remains surprisingly controversial. While it is possible to distinguish specific vestibular organs, it is not clear that this suffices to identify a genuine vestibular sense because of the supposed absence of a distinctive vestibular personal-level manifestation. The vestibular organs instead contribute to more general multisensory representations, whose name still suggest that they have a distinct 'sensory' contribution. The vestibular case shows a good example of the challenge of individuating the senses when multisensory interactions are the norm, neurally, representationally and phenomenally. Here, we propose that an additional metacognitive criterion can be used to single out a distinct sense, besides the existence of specific organs and despite the fact that the information coming from these organs is integrated with other sensory information. We argue that it is possible for human perceivers to monitor information coming from distinct organs, despite their integration, as exhibited and measured through metacognitive performance. Based on the vestibular case, we suggest that metacognitive awareness of the information coming from sensory organs constitutes a new criterion to individuate a sense through both physiological and personal criteria. This new way of individuating the senses accommodates both the specialised nature of sensory receptors as well as the intricate multisensory aspect of neural processes and experience, while maintaining the idea that each sense contributes something special to how we monitor the world and ourselves, at the subjective level.
前庭系统是否应该被视为一种感觉？这个基本的概念问题仍然存在争议。虽然可以区分特定的前庭器官，但由于缺乏独特的前庭个体水平表现，尚不清楚这足以确定真正的前庭感觉。前庭器官反而有助于更一般的多感觉表现，其名称仍然表明它们具有独特的“感觉”贡献。前庭案例很好地说明了在多感觉相互作用成为常态时，从神经、表现和现象学上区分感觉的挑战。在这里，我们提出，除了存在特定的器官之外，即使这些器官的信息与其他感觉信息整合在一起，也可以使用额外的元认知标准来单独确定一个独特的感觉。我们认为，人类感知者可以监测来自不同器官的信息，尽管它们是整合在一起的，这可以通过元认知表现来展示和衡量。基于前庭案例，我们认为，对来自感觉器官的信息的元认知意识构成了通过生理和个人标准来区分感觉的新标准。这种区分感觉的新方法既适应了感觉受体的特殊性，也适应了神经过程和体验的复杂多感觉方面，同时保持了每个感觉在我们如何主观地监测世界和自身方面都有独特贡献的观点。
