Scientific Understanding of Consciousness
Consciousness as an Emergent Property of Thalamocortical Activity

Friendly Conversation

 

 

 

A theme I will probably mention several times is that at the current status of neuroscience, it would not be meaningful to make a detailed diagram of the mechanisms of consciousness. However, a gross diagram can perhaps be informative and helpful. This one for Friendly Conversation might be interesting.

 

A person engaged in friendly conversation is alert and functioning cognitively and emotionally.  Sensory modalities are sending information into the cortex where neural motor signals are generated to produce involuntary emotional responses and gestures along with the voluntary muscular movements of speech and the of accompanying voluntary arm and facial gestures.

 

Both involuntary emotional gestures and voluntary gestures unconsciously invoke stereotyped motor patterns for muscular movement.  The stereotyped motor patterns [FAPS] have been developed during early infancy and childhood.

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