Eli5: Difference between arousal, awareness and consciousness.
In: Biology
Arousal is stimulation–a heightening of reaction or activity due to some external or situational event.
Awareness is A.) Ability or active process of being aware of things, percieving what’s going on in your environment, etc. B.) Actual knowledge of one’s self and ongoing state of experience.
Consciousness is essentially B of the above. Less focused on input being recognized and more focused on what experience itself is.
Okay, imagine you’re playing a game. Arousal is like how excited you are to play, like when you’re jumping up and down with energy. Awareness is like knowing what’s happening in the game, like when you see where all the pieces are and what you need to do next. Consciousness is like being the player in the game, the one who’s controlling everything and making decisions. So, arousal is how excited you are, awareness is knowing what’s going on, and consciousness is like being in charge of it all.
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