There are two aspects to the data of consciousness: subjective and objective. For the former, both the areas of Western phenomenology and Western cognitive science must be considered, as well as the evidence from recent analyses of diseases of the mind (considered form the patients viewpoint). For the latter, much Western cognitive neuroscience data is relevant as to how conscious brain activity is created from that of which there is no consciousness.
This report starts by describing the analysis of the pre-reflective self or ipseity, and how it had developed from the earlier work of Husserl and the group of Sartre, Henry, Merleau-Ponty and others. The manner this is being used in understanding schizohrenia and related mental diseases will be described, following the work of early workers on schizophrenia and more recent analyses of Kimura Bin, Louis Sass and Josef Parnas. The relation of this to the 'null-point' of experience as arising from the body will be considered, as will the relation of ipseity to meditative states.
Cognitive scientific advances through brain imaging will be related to these inner experiences. Data from schizophrenics especially will be conisdered. Then the manner that attention functions as a gateway to consciousness will be described, with brief coverage of recent claims that this is not so. Various paradigms crucial to be explained by models of consciousness, such as the attentional blink and streaming, will also be described.
These, and related topics such as the motion after-effect, will be considered, and data indicating the brain regions involved described, and their related timings.
Finally the nature of motor awareness will be considered, and the present experimental situation relating motor control to attention discussed. The basic problem: does there exist a motor awareness separate from sensory consciousness, will then be considered to complete this summary of some aspects of the data on consciousness.
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