Consciousness and the Social Brain

self-knowledge is the same thing as consciousness. Let us term this chunk of information
S
, for self.
    Another chunk of information describes the properties of
X
, the thing about which I am aware. Many theories of consciousness have focused on the brain’s processing of
X
. Theories of visualconsciousness, for example, almost all focus on the visual processing of visual information in the visual system.
    A third chunk of information depicts the meaning of “am aware of.” In the present theory the brain constructs an attention schema, a rich informational model that depicts the dynamics of a brain attending to something. Let us label this chunk of information
A
.
    The information “I am aware of
X
” is an integration of all three components:
S
+
A
+
X
.
    The formula can be broken down into finer chunks. The depiction of me as an entity,
S
, contains subcomponents. For example, some of the information that defines me is about me as a physical being with a specific location, body structure, movement capability, and ownership of my limbs. This part of
S
is my body schema. Let us call it
PS
, for physical self.
    Another set of information that defines me is more psychological in nature. It is the vast collection of information that I have about myself as a mental being with certain feelings, thoughts, and personality patterns. Let us call this information set
MS
, for mental self.
    Yet another source of information that my brain has on myself as a person is autobiographical memory. At any moment, I may have specific memories active in my brain, supplying me with a sense of my own history and my own trajectory through life. Let us call this information set
RS
, for the recalled memories related to the self.
    The information set
A
also contains subcomponents. As I discussed in Chapter 6 , the human brain tends to construct a spatial embodiment for awareness. My awareness is assigned a location, a perspective, and can even seem to flow fluid-like through space and time. Let us term this part of the information set
PA
, for the physical properties attributed to awareness.
    The information set
A
also contains a description of mental attributes. We report awareness as an intelligence, a private experience, a knowing, a mental seizing of something. Let us term this part of the information set
MA
, for the more mental or experiential properties of awareness.
    The final part of the formula,
X
, the depiction of the object of awareness, can also contain subcomponents. The representation of an apple, for example, is a collection of information about shape, color, location, motion, texture, and so on. Other objects of awareness, whether external objects or internal events, may break down along other lines.
    We now have a much more complex, subdivided formula, from
    C

    to
    S
+
A
+
X

    to
    PS
+
MS
+
RS
+
PA
+
MA
+
X
.

    This neat division is, of course, solely for intellectual convenience. The reality must be messier, a juggling of many more components and subcomponents that change over time, that in some cases are distinct from each other and in other cases grade into each other. But the formal diagramming of components provides at least a handle on the information that, in the attention schema theory, can be bound together to form consciousness. This massive set of information sprawls over much of the brain, interconnected by some mechanism of informational binding that is not yet fully understood (though I will talk more about it in Chapter 11 ). Collectively it is a single, coherent description. It is a representation of a state. Because it is a representation, because it is information, cognitive machinery can access it, summarize its properties, and on that basis decide and report, “
X
is so; it has this and that property; moreover, the property of awareness is attached to
X
; in particular, I experience
X
; I have an inner feeling of
X
; I, the aware being, have thoughts and feelings and personhood; I exist here, in this physical instantiation and mental condition; it is this physical and mental being that has an awareness of
X
.”
    In short form: “I am aware of
X
.”
    Where in these many components is awareness? A holistic answer might reasonably be that all of this information put together—informationthat depicts me as a physical being, information that depicts me as a mental being, information that depicts the act of awareness, information that depicts
X
itself—composes consciousness.
    A more dissected