On the functional role of consciousness

RESUMO

Organization of behavior is grounded on several stages of processing of information by the nervous system. Identification is one of such stages. Through identitication the original information, generated in sensory, automatic, mnemonic and volitional systems, acquires meaning. As one among other forms of identification of neural information the conscious process ensues the original event and precedes decision, organization and effectuation of the activity of the nervous system expressed as behavior. Awareness (that is so characteristic of mental activity during wakefulness), pathological hallucinations, dreaming and other forms of perceptive recognition of neural information always result in some particular pattern of behavion The conscious process, therefore, is neither an epiphenomenon with no ascribable function, nor a nonspecific, passive by-product of neural activity which just "watches" what is going on inside and outside of the body. It is neither an initial nor a final stage in organization of behavior but a specific, highly precise intermediate stage, a particular modality of neural processing which plays a definite function in such organization.