[Brain physiology and origin of the human subjective experience]

Abstract

The modern approaches to the problem of the brain basis of subjective experience are reviewed in the paper. The main hypothesis proposes that the events of subjective experience emerge as a result of information comparison and synthesis in crucial for this mental function cortical areas. This synthesis is provided by the special organization of brain processes which includes circulation of nerve impulses in the brain structures. Memory traces are retrieved during this process, and then the appropriate centers of motivations and emotions are activated. Afterwards, the excitation returns to the sites of initial projections, where the synthesis of new information and that retrieved from memory is performed. The hypothesis has been proposed by the author more than twenty years ago and is based on the experimental study of the brain mechanisms of sensation and thinking. It is also shown that the frontal cortex and, particularly, the verbal centers are involved in recognition and decision making. The last part of the paper deals with the problem of the functional significance of subjective events. The possible double bottom-up and top-down determination of brain and mental events is considered and the importance of the search for experimental approaches to these problems is argued.