In biological psychology the core consciousness describes a hypothesized level of awareness facilitated by neural structures of most animals that allows them to be aware of and react to their environment.
Core consciousness is said to arise from a core self, which is an audience for an endlessly changing stream of stimulus and reaction resulting from interaction with an environment.
The concept was popularized by a neurology department chairman from University of Iowa College of Medicine. Antonio Damasio theorized a core self-perception in the human brain arises from structures in the medial or central areas of the brain, including perhaps the superior colliculus, the thalamus and the cingulate cortex.