Primary consciousness

Primary consciousness

Primary consciousness is a term coined by the American biologist Gerald Edelman to describe the ability, found in humans and some animals, to integrate observed events with memory to create an awareness of the present and immediate past of the world around them. [cite web
url=http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/100/9/5520
title=Naturalizing consciousness: A theoretical framework
author=Gerald Edelman
publisher=PNAS
date=April 29, 2003
doi=10.1073/pnas.0931349100
accessdate=2008-06-25
]

Many biologists believe that mammals and birds have primary consciousness, but that most other animals (for example, snakes) lack it. [cite web
url=http://www.grandin.com/references/animal.consciousness.html
title=Consciousness in Animals and People with Autism
author=Temple Grandin
date=October 1996
accessdate=2008-06-25
] A case has been made that cephalopod molluscs such as octopuses may have primary consciousness. [cite web
title=How Smart Is the Octopus?
url=http://www.slate.com/id/2192211/
date=June 23, 2008
author=Carl Zimmer
publisher=Slate magazine
accessdate=2008-06-25
]

In his book "" and other publications, Edelman has put forward a set of hypotheses for explaining primary consciousness in terms of neural behavior within the brain.

References

See also

* Awareness
* Consciousness

External links

* cite web
url=http://www.jci.org/114/11/1530?content_type=full
title=Book Review: "Wider than the sky: The phenomenal gift of consciousness"
doi=10.1172/JCI23795
date=2004
author=Adam Zeman
publisher=J. Clin. Invest.
accessdate=2008-06-25


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