Base-State Memory and Conditional Coherence: A Conceptual Framework for Multisensory State Integration

This conceptual paper develops a layered framework for describing how partial, modality-specific information may combine into a stable operational representation of an embodied environment. Human observers do not receive a complete object or environment through any single sensory channel; vision, touch, hearing, thermal sensing, proprioception, and movement each provide different and incomplete constraints. The paper introduces base-state memory and conditional coherence as conceptual tools for describing how these partial constraints may remain mutually informative across time and across sensory channels. The framework distinguishes local sensory information from persistent relational structure and examines how multiple incomplete observations can jointly support a more stable state representation than any individual measurement provides. The proposal is intended as a hypothesis-generating and organisational framework. It does not claim a new fundamental physical law, a new spatial dimension, or experimental confirmation of a distinct memory mechanism. Its purpose is to provide a structured vocabulary for analysing multisensory integration, embodied state estimation, relational persistence, and the conditions under which incomplete observations can collectively constrain an observer’s representation of a system.