Cognition consists of constructing internal representations and assembling them into mental models that simulate the body and world. These distributed neural representations integrate perceptions, memories, and bodily states to form context-specific simulations. Mental models function like maps or images built from sensory input, enabling organisms to mentally rehearse possible outcomes and anticipate consequences. Anticipation allows selection of actions based on predicted results, representing a major advance over purely reactive behavior. Cognitive processing includes both unconscious and conscious mechanisms, and distinguishing between them can inform the development of a theory of consciousness.
Joseph LeDoux has written extensively on the evolution of cognition. He defines cognition as "the ability to use internal representations of information to construct mental models of the world." In other words, cognition entails "the capacity to construct models of the world and use these in thinking, planning, deciding, acting, and even feeling." Internal representations -elements of mental models-are like maps or images of the body and the world, constructed by the brain from sensory input.
Of course, these are not literal pictures in the brain but distributed patterns of neural activity, often involving coordinated interactions among brain regions that may be physically distant from one another. Mental models are formed by the assembly of such representations into context-specific simulations that integrate perceptions, memories, and bodily states. These models allow animals to mentally rehearse possible outcomes and thus select actions based on anticipated consequences-a major leap beyond purely reactive behavior.
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