AUTOIDENTIFICATION AND SENSORY-MOTOR REHEARSAL AS PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The article discusses the nature and neurophysiological mechanisms of sensory awareness, conscious perception, the generation of thought, imagination, intuition and discursive thinking. It is shown that sensory awareness and the generation of thought are based on high-frequency cyclic processes of autoidentification. Imagination and discursive thinking are based on cyclic processes of sensory-motor rehearsal. Rehearsal is a low-frequency process (3-6 Hz) and its contents are available for viewing with the help of a high-frequency autoidentification processes (30-70 Hz). A series of mental images, words or symbols is controlled by the motor system and is available for viewing through the processes of autoidentification. The interacting mechanisms of sensory-motor rehearsal and autoidentification allow us to form images, scenes and dialogues, to observe and change them, creating a mobile and controlled world of conscious experience. It is shown that the mechanisms of autoidentification and sensory-motor rehearsal allow us to explain the nature of a wide range of properties of conscious brain activity, including such mysterious phenomena as hypnosis and meditation.