This article addresses the question of how information is organized in the human mind, particularly the fundamental possibility of extracting any kind of structural units from the array of information perceived and processed, and the potential for identifying the smallest, “elementary,” unit of information applicable to consciousness. The process of perception is regarded as a process in which information received from receptors is sequentially generalized, compared with previously acquired experience, and converted to material for forming higher-level abstract concept. The process of “understanding” concepts is considered as a process opposite to the process forming them, i.e., a process during which the mind’s encounter with a previously assimilated concept reactivates the multitude of images and associations which previously served as the material for its formation. The question of identifying key characteristics and most significant associative connections in the array of information is addressed with respect to the normal mind and the pathology of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
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Translated from Uspekhi Fiziologicheskikh Nauk, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 77–89, January–March, 2021.
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Baklushev, M.E., Ivanitsky, G.A. Discreteness and Continuity of Information in Consciousness. Neurosci Behav Physi 51, 1344–1353 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-021-01199-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-021-01199-8