Feelings of Emotion and the Self

The self is a critical component of consciousness. The neural correlates of self have proven elusive, but it is reasonable to suggest that, in its simplest form, the self process requires a composite representation of the ongoing state of the organism as reflected in subcortical and cortical somatic maps within the central nervous system. The basis for these maps is a wealth of signals originating in different sectors of the body-proper. Some of these signals portray the actual state of the body as modified by emotions in response to interactions with the environment; but other signals are the result of internal simulations controlled from other regions of the central nervous system.