Consciousness requires specific structures {prerequisite structures for consciousness} {consciousness, prerequisite structures}.
body
Body, separate from brain, carries sensors and performs movements. Body surfaces interface with environment and define body-part positions. Body surfaces encounter obstacles and interact with objects.
Body and brain pair structures, for redundancy and cooperation. Redundancy allows one structure to perform required function, while other structure can start new function.
Voluntary muscles allow repositioning sense organs, moving toward and way from perceived objects, and obtaining different viewpoints.
Gravity establishes vertical pressure gradient from toe to head.
Chemical gradients across body, organs, and organ modules establish growth, repair, and development axes.
brain
Brain, separate from body, optimizes distances between processing centers, for fastest speed and most interaction. Brain regions have locations that optimize function. Frontal lobe is in front, so its pathways can loop through thalamus and cortex with correct timing and spatial layout. Cerebellum is at rear, to connect to brainstem and to have proper timing with motor and touch sense systems. Cortex overlaps lower brain regions, to time multisensory and motor processes correctly. Brainstem is central, to activate and interact efficiently.
Brain regions simulate body and environment spatial relations, using topographic neuron layers.
Brain has three-dimensional registers to store information and to make behavior and memory lookup tables.
Neural pathways go out and return to make ring or loop that allows feedback, feedforward, iteration, memory read, memory write, and reverberation.
Brain regions can have circuits that cross up-down, right-left, and front-back. Switchboards allow read and write operations.
Neurons interact with neighboring and distant neurons (neuron assemblies) to make overall behavior, mental function, and mood. Neurons adhere to other neurons and glia to form groups and layers that determine processing.
Neurons have different shapes and chemicals to allow different processing types.
Neurons have excitatory and inhibitory chemical synapses, with synapse plasticity.
Neurons have support cells (glia) that regulate chemical environment.
senses
Sense systems have receptor and neuron-type spatial and temporal patterns, with interconnections to make distinctive signals and codes [Ackerman, 1990].
Multiple sense systems, especially vision, kinesthetic, and touch systems, allow comparisons among sense spaces and intensities to make consensus space and time.
Body needs pain, temperature, kinesthesia, and vestibular systems (inside senses) to know body-part locations.
Body needs vision, hearing, and touch (outside senses) to know outside object locations.
Sense receptors absorb stimulus energy to polarize membranes and measure stimulus intensities. Sense systems have many receptor types.
ground of Earth
Main object outside body is the mostly horizontal ground. Ground establishes horizontal, with fundamental directions straight ahead and right/left. Body is perpendicular to ground, so ground establishes vertical direction. Specialized body surfaces contact ground, and feet feel substantial pressure.
Consciousness>Consciousness>Prerequisites
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Date Modified: 2022.0224