Interesting subject Tanypteryx,
My take on this is that most of the sensory information that is being processed is running in the back ground. Like on some 3rd of 4th tier.
The brain seems to filter all sorts of shit it doesn't think is necessary to pay attention to. Which is why we can navigate our way to work and practically not remember the drive. Your in the zone so to speak. Zen driving.
When I was learning to drive my school driving instructor told me that a when you are a good driver your passengers will not remember your commute. But if you suck as a driver you they will remember every close call, jamming their foot on a imaginary brake etc.. ha ha.
It is the part of the brain that is responsible for taking the steering wheel in cases of perceived emergency where consciousness lives. The thinker behind the thought. The one who must react NOW.
Much of our other decisions are mediated through our subconscious, endocrine system and biome. We can of course override their decisions but for the most part they just convince us it was OUR decision in the first place.
Brain experiments have borne out that some decisions we think we are consciously making are already a second or so prior, generated and implemented in our subconscious. "Inception" anyone? The thinker behind the thought may just be a puppet. Frighting thought to be sure.
Oh I by pass any angst created by this thought by just saying its all a symbiotic relationship that make me, ME.
"You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative" William S. Burroughs