Visual perception and phenomenal consciousness.
Behavioural Brain Research November 1, 1995 P Stoerig, A Cowey 54 citations
Consciousness is exclusive to living organisms that can distinguish self from non-self and voluntarily modify their behavior, requiring an intermediary neuronal net between sensory input and behavioral output. The visual system reveals two distinct aspects of consciousness: phenomenal vision (subjective experience) and conscious access (ability to retrieve and manipulate information). Blindsight patients, who process visual information without phenomenal vision, demonstrate this dissociation. Monkeys with striate cortex removal show similar absence of phenomenal vision, enabling further study of its neural basis. Conscious access likely requires higher cortical structures and depends on phenomenal representations, which may function to allow conscious thinking and planning.