The "relational mind" approach to the inner content of
consciousness is developed in terms of various control structures
and processing strategies and their possible neurobiological
identifications in brain sites. This leads naturally to a division
of consciousness into a passive and an active part. A global control
structure for the "single strand" aspect of consciousness is
proposed as the thalamo-nucleus reticularis thalami-cortex coupled
system, which is related to experimental data on the electrical
stimulation of awareness. Local control, in terms of excitatory
transfer from pre-processing sites to posterior working memory
regions, is supported by data on subliminal perception timing and
disambiguation of poorly defined percepts. The inner content of
consciousness is understood as arising from the resulting relational
features between inputs and stored pre-processing and episodic
memories. Strong analogies are drawn between emergent properties of
the model and suggested properties of "raw feels", supporting the
thesis that working memories are the initial sites for the emergence
of phenomenal awareness, and the frontal lobes for its further
adumbration in terms of higher cognitive processing, including the
creation of self.
