BODY SENSE AND THE SOMATIC MARKERS : EMOTIONS IN CONSCIOUSNESS STUDIES

Abstract

Within the area of cognitive sciences and consciousness studies the primary aspect of emotion that is emphasised is the feel factor or the qualia of the experience. What makes an experience unique to the person defines its qualia and therefore is mostly inaccessible to others. The closest relative to qualia is emotion because of its person-centric nature. Emotion, for neuroscience, is today one of the junctions where brain and personal experience meet. The binary notions of reason/emotion are increasingly disappearing from serious discussions on cognition and consciousness, at least from the neurobiological point of view. And the central factor for this transformation is the binding problem in consciousness studies which brings the self to the forefront.