In his book Self Comes to Mind (2015), and with appeal to evidence from neurological studies and brain scanning, Damasio argues that the self and its conscious experience are a graduated and complex construction of many brain areas. Each brain area contributes specific aspects of our experience.
Consciousness is constructed by the brain through an awake mind. Mind is not the same as consciousness, although both are physical states of the brain. Mind is the product of mapping and processing of internal body states, and external features of the physical environment the body is located in. Much of what the mind does remains unconscious. The self comes into being when the brain puts alongside mind an awake state that is also aware of itself as a distinct entity. This complex of mind, consciousness and self has developed over evolutionary history.
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