INVESTIGATING THE BIOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The fact that consciousness is a private, first-person phenomenon make s it more difficult to study than other cognitive phenomena that, alth ough being equally private, also have characteristic behavioural signa tures. Nonetheless, by combining cognitive and neurobiological methods , it is possible to approach consciousness, to describe its cognitive nature, its behavioural correlates, its possible evolutionary origin a nd functional role; last but not least, it is possible to investigate its neuroanatomical and neurophysiological underpinnings. In this brie f essay I distinguish between two kinds of consciousness: core conscio usness and extended consciousness. Core consciousness corresponds to t he transient process that is incessantly generated relative to any obj ect with which an organism interacts, and during which a transient cor e self and transient sense of knowing are automatically generated. Cor e consciousness requires neither language nor working memory, and need s only a brief short-term memory. Extended consciousness is a more com plex process. It depends on the gradual build-up of an autobiographica l self, a set of conceptual memories pertaining to both past and antic ipated experiences of an individual, and it requires conventional memo ry. Extended consciousness is enhanced by language.