On the Evolution of Conciousness

This article presents an explanatory model of perception as the origin of consciousness. During perception, the sensory system does not take up the stimulus itself, but rather symbolic information about it. The elements of this symbolic information, the sense qualities, are generated in the interaction of the stimulus with the sensory apparatus, which acts as a ?lter. Sense qualities are therefore not an arbitrary product of the brain. Conscious perception is preceded by a preattentive phase of neocortical stimulus analysis, leading to the formation of sensory detectors in the brain cortex. In this phase, the symbolic information is recoded: The nervous system acts as code and carrier. The neural code must be decoded in order to acquire meaning. Sense qualities cannot be perceived unless the central activation system directs the sensory system selectively toward the stimulus. In this process, the cortical detectors and the sensory system, forming a functional unit, are confronted with the stimulus and the neural code is decoded into sensory perception. Somatosensory perception is involved in every subjective experience, for only in this case (coincide).