✰ Barbara ✰

To experience something subjectively, the brain has to be in the state of consciousness, but also capable of processing sensory data which constitute the contents of experience. In other words, the presence of specific sensory contents in conscious awareness is not automatically granted, but requires involvement of cerebral interactive mechanisms that aid the explication of preconsciously processed information. Neurobiological experimental data, deep brain stimulation data, and anesthesiological data converge in showing that modulations mediated by the thalamocortical “nonspecific” system targeted at the specific system of encoding the sensory-perceptual information are necessary for subjective contentful experience to emerge