How does my brain know what's my inner monologue and what is external signals?
Early one morning I left my phone down stairs, extremely faintly I thought I could hear the alarm going off, the alarm has a regular repeating tune and it was hard to tell if I was actually hearing it or if I was anticipating it what made me I imagine I was hearing it because it was so faint.
It made me think how does my brain know from the signals going into the cortex, how does it distinguish between external signals and what is feedback from higher regions of the cortex?
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.