This site has been permanently archived. This is a static copy provided by the University of Southampton.
---
abstract: 'At the phenomenal level, consciousness arises in a consistently coherent fashion as a singular, unified field of recursive self-awareness (subjectivity) with explicitly orientational characteristics—that of a subject located both spatially and temporally in an egocentrically-extended domain. Understanding these twin elements of consciousness begins with the recognition that ultimately (and most primitively), cognitive systems serve the biological self-regulatory regime in which they subsist. The psychological structures supporting self-located subjectivity involve an evolutionary elaboration of the two basic elements necessary for extending self-regulation into behavioral interaction with the environment: an orientative reference frame which consistently structures ongoing interaction in terms of controllable spatiotemporal parameters, and processing architecture that relates behavior to homeostatic needs via feedback. Over time, constant evolutionary pressures for energy efficiency have encouraged the emergence of anticipative feedforward processing mechanisms, and the elaboration, at the apex of the sensorimotor processing hierarchy, of self-activating, highly attenuated recursively-feedforward circuitry processing the basic orientational schema independent of external action output. As the primary reference frame of active waking cognition, this recursive self-locational schema processing generates a zone of subjective self-awareness in terms of which it feels like something to be oneself here and now. This is consciousness-as-subjectivity. '
altloc: []
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: ~
conference: ~
confloc: ~
contact_email: ~
creators_id:
- fhpeters@aapt.net.au
creators_name:
- family: Peters
given: Frederic
honourific: Dr
lineage: ''
date: 2010
date_type: completed
datestamp: 2009-12-19 11:47:14
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/67/54
edit_lock_since: ~
edit_lock_until: ~
edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name: []
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 6754
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png;/6754/1/Nature_Preceedings_Consciousness_as_Self%2DLocation_Pdf.pdf
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: inpress
issn: ~
item_issues_comment: []
item_issues_count: 0
item_issues_description: []
item_issues_id: []
item_issues_reported_by: []
item_issues_resolved_by: []
item_issues_status: []
item_issues_timestamp: []
item_issues_type: []
keywords: 'Consciousness, theory of consciousness, self regulation, subjectivity, path integration, forward models, intentionality'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:57:34
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: ~
pubdom: TRUE
publication: Psychological Research
publisher: Springer
refereed: TRUE
referencetext: ~
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 26
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2009-12-19 11:47:14
subjects:
- behav-neuro-sci
- cog-psy
succeeds: ~
suggestions: ~
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: 'Consciousness as Recursive, Spatiotemporal Self-Location'
type: journalp
userid: 8074
volume: Forthc