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Related Concept Videos

Understanding Consciousness01:23

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Consciousness can be defined as the state of being aware of and able to think about one's existence, sensations, and surroundings. It encompasses two major components: awareness and arousal. Awareness pertains to the recognition of environmental stimuli and internal states. At the same time, arousal refers to the physiological readiness to engage with these stimuli, which varies significantly between states like sleep and wakefulness.
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The concept of subconscious awareness refers to the processing of information below the level of conscious thought, which significantly influences both behaviors and decisions. It is also known as waking subconscious awareness. This complex level of cognition operates without the direct awareness of the individual, facilitating rapid and simultaneous handling of multiple information streams.
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Self-Awareness and Its Effects01:21

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Self-awareness is a psychological state in which the individual becomes the focal point of their attention. This inward focus transforms the self into an object of contemplation and assessment, influencing how individuals perceive their actions and their alignment with personal and societal standards.Triggers and Contexts for Self-AwarenessSelf-awareness can be activated by external stimuli that make individuals visually or audibly aware of themselves, such as mirrors, cameras, or recordings.
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High-Level and Low-Level Awareness01:19

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Controlled processes in human consciousness represent high-alert mental states where individuals deliberately focus their attention on achieving specific goals. Controlled processes can be seen in situations like mastering new technology, where a person might become so absorbed that they ignore surrounding distractions. Such processes involve selective attention, requiring one to concentrate on particular elements of experience while disregarding others. These are governed by executive...
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Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skills through practice or experience, leading to long-lasting behavioral changes. This acquisition occurs through interaction with the environment and requires practice or experience. For instance, mastering a skill such as surfing requires considerable practice and experience, highlighting the essential role of repeated interactions with the environment in learning.
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Metacognition is a conscious process where individuals are aware of their cognitive and executive processes, such as planning before solving a problem or self-monitoring during reading. For instance, a writer may need help with composing a piece. The situation involves a writer who is working on a piece of writing, but while doing so, they realize that something is missing. They notice that their characters lack depth or details. This realization occurs because the writer is reflecting on their...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Assessment and Communication for People with Disorders of Consciousness
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Assessment and Communication for People with Disorders of Consciousness

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Learning to Be Conscious.

Axel Cleeremans1, Dalila Achoui1, Arnaud Beauny1

  • 1Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group (CO3), Center for Research in Cognition & Neuroscience (CRCN), ULB Neuroscience Institute (UNI), Université libre de Bruxelles, 50 ave. F-D. Roosevelt CP191, B1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.

Trends in Cognitive Sciences
|January 2, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Consciousness is learned by the brain through self-organization, developing meta-representations that qualify experiences. This novel framework explains how the brain learns to understand its own states, forming a theory of itself.

Keywords:
consciousnessglobal workspace theoryhigher-order theorieslearningmetacognitionpredictive processing

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Philosophy of Mind

Background:

  • Consciousness presents a significant scientific challenge.
  • Existing theories offer diverse explanations for phenomenal experience.
  • Integrating global workspace, higher-order, social, and predictive processing theories is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Introduce a novel framework for understanding consciousness: the self-organizing meta-representational account (SOMA).
  • Propose that consciousness is a learned brain function.
  • Explain the role of meta-representations in qualifying first-order representations.

Main Methods:

  • Synthesize concepts from global workspace theory, higher-order theories, social theories, and predictive processing.
  • Develop a theoretical framework (SOMA) based on continuous, unconscious self-description by the brain.
  • Define consciousness as the brain's learned theory about its own activity.

Main Results:

  • Consciousness arises from the brain learning to redescribe its own activity.
  • The brain develops systems of meta-representations that qualify first-order representations.
  • Experiencers require learned awareness and valuation of their first-order states for experiences to occur.

Conclusions:

  • Consciousness is an emergent property of the brain learning to represent itself.
  • The self-organizing meta-representational account (SOMA) offers a unified framework for consciousness.
  • Consciousness is the brain's unconscious, embodied, enactive, and nonconceptual theory about itself.