Awareness
In biological psychology, awareness comprises a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. Awareness does not necessarily imply understanding, just an ability to be conscious of, feel or perceive.
Concept
Awareness is a relative concept. An animal may be partially aware, may be subconsciously aware, or may be acutely aware of an event. Awareness may be focused on an internal state, such as a visceral feeling, or on external events by way of sensory perception. Awareness provides the raw material from which animals develop qualia, or subjective ideas about their experience.
Also used to distinguish sensory perception is the word "awarement." "Awarement" is the established form of awareness. Once one has accomplished their sense of awareness they have come to terms with awarement.
Self-awareness
Popular ideas about consciousness suggest the phenomenon describes a condition of being aware of one's awareness or, self-awareness. Efforts to describe consciousness in neurological terms have focused on describing networks in the brain that develop awareness of the qualia developed by other networks.[1]
Neuroscience
Neural systems that regulate attention serve to attenuate awareness among complex animals whose central and peripheral nervous system provides more information than cognitive areas of the brain can assimilate. Within an attenuated system of awareness, a mind might be aware of much more than is being contemplated in a focused extended consciousness.
Basic Awareness
Basic awareness of one's internal and external world depends on the brain stem. Bjorn Merker [2], an independent neuroscientist in Segeltorp, Sweden, argues that the brain stem supports an elementary form of conscious thought in infants with hydranencephaly. "Higher" forms of awareness including self-awareness require cortical contributions, but "primary consciousness" or "basic awareness" as an ability to integrate sensations from the environment with one's immediate goals and feelings in order to guide behavior, springs from the brain stem which human beings share with most of the vertebrates. Psychologist Carroll Izard emphasizes that this form of primary consciousness consists of capacity to generate emotions and an awareness of one's surroundings, but not an ability to talk about what one has experienced. In the same way, people can become conscious of a feeling that they can't label or describe, a phenomenon that's especially common in pre-verbal infants.
Due to this discovery medical definitions of brain death as a lack of cortical activity face a serious challenge.
Basic Interests
Down the brain stem lie interconnected regions that regulate the direction of eye gaze and organize decisions about what to do next, such as reaching for a piece of food or pursuing a potential mate.
Living Systems View
Outside of neuroscience biologists, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela contributed their Santiago theory of cognition in which they wrote:
Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. This statement is valid for all organisms, with or without a nervous system.[3]
This theory contributes a perspective that cognition is a process present at organic levels that we don't usually consider to be aware. Given the possible relationship between awareness and cognition, and consciousness, this theory contributes an interesting perspective in the philosophical and scientific dialogue of awareness and living systems theory.
Other uses
Awareness is also a concept used in CSCW. Its definition has not yet reached a consensus in the scientific community.
Awareness forms a basic concept of the theory and practice of Gestalt therapy.
In general, "awareness" may also refer to public or common knowledge or understanding about a social, scientific, or political issue, and hence many movements try to foster "awareness" of a given subject. Examples include AIDS awareness and Multicultural awareness.
Awareness may refer to Anesthesia awareness.
References
- ^ ed (1998), Self-awareness : its nature and development, 12-13, New York, NY: Guilford Press, ISBN 1572303174
- ^ http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070915/bob9.asp Consciousness in the Raw, Science News Online, September 2007
- ^ Capra, Fritjof. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37800841&referer=brief_results The Web of Life: A new Scientific Understanding of Living Systems.
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See also
External links
- National Library of Medicine Conditioning, awareness, and the hippocampus.
- Euroscience Conference: Presentation on Human Awareness and Behaviour In A Changing World.
- Cornell University: Recent findings in the awareness of brain damaged people.
