ИСТИНА

In modern psychology the meaning of the term “sensation” is dependent on the conceptual context of a certain psychological theory. This report presents “sensation” as an interdisciplinary concept considering: a) the psychological comprehension of the “sensation” concept; b) the results of neurophysiological studies demonstrating: i) temporal correlation of sensory stimuli, extrema of the evoked potentials (P300) and sensations occured in consciousness of the subject and recorded by pressing a button; ii) the coherence of cognitive acts in consciousness when solving a problem accompanied by signals in the neural system is similar to sensory stimuli (P300 cognitive evoked potentials); c) the concept of “qualia” in philosophy of mind, whereby “mental state is conscious if it has a qualitative feel [qualia]… It is often hard to pin down just what the qualitative feel of an occurrent thought is, but it is certainly there”, where qualia can be sensations, emotions or thoughts. (D. Chalmers); d) the ontological concept of sensation in Hegel’s “Philosophy of Mind”. Hegel writes: “ Everything that emerges in conscious... has its source and origin in sensation... it not be enough to have principles and religion only in the head: they must also be... in the feeling». «The most interesting side of a psychical physiology …to explain… just as thinking and mental occupation are felt in the head, the centre of the ‘sensible’ system”. Having been jointly analized, states of consciousness caused by sensory influences, cognitive processes and mental states in the light of “a)” - “d)” can be identified in a single way as “sensations”. Providing a general approach to defining the concept of sensation is relevant to psychological knowledge as well as to the development of artificial intelligence.