[Auto-Identification of Neuronal Activity Patterns as a Physiological Mechanism of Awareness].

Abstract

How do humans become aware of anything, be it a flash of light, a scent or a sensation of pain? There is no conclusive answer to this question yet, though it is a key to understanding any form of consciousness. This paper postulates a mechanism of auto-identification, which consists in the following: a pattern of input excitation, generated'by a stimulus in one or several cortical. areas, generates.a pattern of output excitation identical (i.e. broadly coincident) with the input excitationpattern. The output pattern of excitation is relayed by way of massively parallel feedback to the input of the same cortical areas. The identical patterns of excitation produced by the stimulus and relayed through back projections, add together in the same neuronal structures resulting in their intensive firing. This cyclic process accentuates the characteristics and intensifies the stimulus mapping thus-providing the best conditions for distributed longterm memory categorizing the stimulus. The sensory category is the cortical response to the input excitation and is mapped by a specific pattern of neuronal activity. The pattern of categorization is relayed to the input and is included in the cycle of auto-identification, thus providing for intensive mapping of the subjective meaning of the stimulus. The mapping of sensory categories (i.e. internal data) by input neuronal activity patterns is therefore representation of these categories to the subject as elements of the mapping of the world outside. As a result, the outside world is represented to.the subject not by the objective characteristics of the physical world, but by sensory categories: color, taste, odor, tactile sensa- tion, etc., which constitutes the phenomenon of sensory awareness.