El exocerebro: Una hipótesis sobre la conciencia

Resumen

Exocerebrum: an hypothesis on consciousness

The exocerebrum alludes to extrasomatic circuits of a symbolic nature that may explain the workings of consciousness understood as selfawareness. We can make a parallelism inspired in biomedical engineering that constructs sensory substitution systems for the blind, deaf and other disabled people. Neuronal plasticity allows for the adaptation of the brain and reassembles the circuits that function deficiently in different areas. If we transfer this approach to the exocerebrum, we can assume that important deficiencies in the encoding system, arising from environmental changes which seriously affect some senses (smell, hearing), promoted, in certain hominids, their substitution by the activity of other brain regions (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas) closely linked to the cultural systems of symbolic encoding. The replaced brain activity cannot be understood without the corresponding cultural prosthesis. This prosthesis can be defined as a symbolic system of substitution that originates from a set of compensatory mechanisms replacing those that have deteriorated when faced with a new environment. This hypothesis supposes that certain human brain regions genetically acquire neurophysiological dependency on the symbolic system of substitution.

Key words: exocerebrum, consciousness, symbolic system of substitution, cultural prosthesis.