Vigilance

'Vigilance is alertness. It is a sign of physiological awareness. Vigilance is the optimal state of the CNS, when a person is able to respond adequately to changes in the external environment. From a neurophysiological point of view, the basic mechanism is the reticular formation, part of which is the ARAS (ascending reticular activation system) = non-specific afferent pathways leading stimuli from the periphery to the stem, diencephalon and the cortex; this is a very old integration system.

Psychiatric definition of consciousness: It is the ability to be aware of oneself as an individual in relation to the surrounding world; the ability to correctly interpret one's own experiences.

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