Consciousness.
Brain : a journal of neurology July 1, 2001 A Zeman
Consciousness is an ambiguous term with multiple meanings: the waking state, experience, or possession of any mental state. Self-consciousness is similarly ambiguous. Understanding of consciousness has been transformed by electrical correlates and brain structures regulating sleep-wake cycles. Clinical studies define pathologies of wakefulness like coma and persistent vegetative state. Research on visual perception is defining neural correlates of real and illusory experience. Unconscious neural processes show 'unperceived' stimuli affect neural events and action, exemplified by blindsight. Cognitive neuroscience explores implicit versus explicit memory and deliberate versus automatic action. Overarching scientific theories include neurobiological accounts, information-processing roles, and social functions. Whether science will fully explain consciousness remains debated, with physicalism, functionalism, property dualism, and dual-aspect theories addressing experience's relation to brain activity and behavior.