Perception, Consciousness, Memory

I Perception-Information Uptake of the Mind.- 1 The biology of perception.- Experimental techniques.- Generation and conduction of impulses.- Functional unity of analyzers.- Once more about the problem of methods.- Connection between stimulus and perception.- Physiological characteristics of perception.- 2 Perception of electromagnetic waves: vision.- The receiving end: the retina.- The thalamus-a central relay station.- The cortical decoding center.- The central control of vision.- The perception of patterns.- Visual perception of depth and distance.- 3 Perception of mechanical vibrations: hearing.- Structure of the auditory analyzer.- Coding and decoding in the auditory system.- Perception of acoustic configuration and direction of sounds.- Cerebral control in the auditory system.- 4 Perception of the mechanics of body position.- Structure and encoding activity of proprioceptors.- Cortical decoding of information on body position.- The gamma-efferent mechanism: central control of muscle receptors.- 5 Senses of indefinite classification: cutaneous and chemical receptors.- Physiological analysis of sensations arising from cutaneous receptors.- Encoding and decoding mechanisms in the sensation of taste and smell.- 6 Interoception -sensory function without perception.- Structure of the visceral sensory apparatus.- Encoding of interoceptive impulses.- Decoding of visceral impulses.- II The Energetics of Mental Processes: The Waking State, Sleep, Attention, and Consciousness.- 7 Alert neurons in the brain-waking and attention.- The brainstem reticular activating system.- Electroencephalography.- Attention and habituation.- 8 The sleeping brain.- Dreams.- Hypnosis.- 9 The conscious state and the unconscious.- Unconscious physiological processes.- The biology of the conscious state: an unknown field.- III The Experience of the Mind: Learning and Memory.- 10 Contiguity of cerebral processes: learning.- Type I. Learning by classical conditioning.- Type II: Instrumental (operant) learning.- The process of conditioning.- Structural organization of conditioned reflexes.- The negative reflection of learning: inhibition.- Learning in the living organism.- 11 The other aspect of cerebral plasticity: the fixing and storing of information.- Short-term (labile) memory.- Long-term (permanent) storing based on synaptic rearrangement-the first alternative.- Qualitative molecular changes-another alternative of long-term memory.- Further Readings.