Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the ability of the brain to be aware of itself and its processes, memories and thoughts,
as well as to recognise the body it resides in as being a separate entity.
It is the basic requirement for consciousness.
This concept is part of level 6 in my
hierarchical structure of levels of description
because it depends entirely on the existence of the self-modelling self symbol schema.
- Self-awareness is initially generated in the self symbol schema
as a result of the modelling of the process of attention.
- The processing of data from within the brain (that I call cognoception)
relating to the process of attention, using exactly the same hierarchical
afferent processing that is used for incoming sense data,
creates a symbol schema that represents the process of attention.
- When this is activated, it represents not only my attention on a particular other
symbol schema, and therefore my perception of the object or concept that this represents,
but also my awareness of my attention on that other symbol schema.
- I innately feel that attention is the primary manifestation of my consciousness
because it is what I am aware of from moment to moment, when I are awake. However, there are two
issues with this:
- Without self-awareness I would not have any awareness of attention, so
self-awareness is a more important aspect of consciousness than attention.
- I am not able to be aware of the details of the process of attention,
which in fact involves a hierarchy of competitions between various external stimuli and internal influences.
I only become aware of the subject of attention when the top of the hierarchy is reached,
because I am only aware of my own model of attention within the self symbol schema.
However, I can provide some internal influence on the outcome of the process of attention.
- Once the model of attention is in place, it can become a model of self-awareness by losing the
aspects specific to attention on one object or concept, and it can encompass other aspects of the self model
that have been created within the self symbol schema, such
as memories and other personal properties that the brain has recorded.
- Self-awareness is a prerequisite for
consciousness1,
because the many facets that make up my consciousness all require it.
- This diagram is from
afferent processing example 8.
- Please see diagram information for general information
about the diagram. In particular, please note that the neurons shown in these examples are not real neurons
but simplified model neurons that I call ABCD neurons.
- When my attention is on throwing the frisbee, the neuron marked Z will be activated
because of the coincidence of neurons in the frisbee symbol schema Y being active at the same time
as neurons in the self symbol schema.
- Once this neuron an its connections are in place, in the future, if my
self symbol schema activates this neuron, it will in turn
activate not only the symbol schema for a frisbee, but also my attention on it, and I will
be aware of the frisbee, and also be aware that I am aware of it, which is self-awareness.
- If a similar thing happens every time my attention is on something, a new symbol schema
will emerge that contains all the neurons that are activated when something comes to my attention,
and the neurons specific to symbol schemas will be dropped (because they are not common to all
occurrences of attention).
- This new symbol schema starts as a model of attention, but it becomes a model of my self-awareness.
- It will only represent the conscious activation and the result of attention,
and will be a compressed and simplified version of the process.
- It will have no information about the unconscious process of
biased competition that is the reality of attention, and it will have
no record of any attempts that I made to direct my attention to something that were not successful
because of other higher priorities.
This mean I am totally unaware of my failed attempts to pay attention to something.
- It also means that my innate belief is that I can successfully direct my attention to
anything I desire, but this is not true.
- The Attention Schema Theory,
developed by Michael Graziano,
also proposes that subjective awareness is actually a model of the brains’ process of
attention2,
3.
- However, he does not propose how this model is created and maintained.
- And (as far as I can find) he does not make any suggestion that the processing
required to do this is the same as the brain uses to process sense data.
-
^
Mental Models: Towards a Cognitive Science of Language, Inference, and Consciousness - Philip Johnson-Laird Cambridge University Press 1983
Page 473, last paragraph, in the chapter entitled “Consciousness and computation”, under the heading “Self-awareness in automata that understand themselves”:
“In order for a Craikian automaton [an organism that makes use of a representation of the external world, named after Kenneth Craik] to be conscious and have intentions, it must be enhanced by the crucial component of self-awareness.”
-
^
The attention schema theory: a mechanistic account of subjective awareness - Webb and Graziano 2015
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00500
downloadable here or see
GoogleScholar.
Beginning of conclusion on page 9:
“We argue that the attention schema theory provides a possible answer to the puzzle of subjective experience. The core claim of the theory is that the brain computes a simplified model of the process and current state of attention, and that the content of this model is the basis of subjective reports. According to the theory, subjective reports such as 'I am aware of X' involve the following steps. Stimulus X is encoded as a representation in the brain, competing with other stimulus representations for the brain’s limited processing resources. If stimulus X wins this signal competition, resulting in its being deeply processed by the brain, then stimulus X is attended. According to the theory, an additional step is needed to produce a report of subjective awareness of stimulus X. The brain has to compute a model of the process of attention itself. Attention is, in a sense, a relevant attribute of the stimulus. It’s red, it’s round, it’s at this location, and it’s being attended by me. The complex phenomenon of a stimulus being selectively processed by the brain, attention, is represented in a simplified model, an attention schema.”
-
^
Rethinking Consciousness - Graziano 2019 Norton & Company USA
Third paragraph of dust cover blurb:
“Graziano proposes that in order to monitor and control this specialized attention, the brain evolved a simplified model of it - a cartoonish self-description depicting an internal essence with a capacity for knowledge and experience. In other words, consciousness.”
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