Definition - "The process of knowing" - the neural process by which the brain integrates meaningful stimuli and internal motivations (brain/body states) into awareness and appropriate behavior.
Stimuli may be external and detected by the special sensory systems;
Stimuli may be internal and related to brain/body state (sense of self - "body schema");
Brain/body states may reflect emotions, mood, motivations, memory, appetitive drives, injuries etc.
Awareness may be "veridical" or highly subjective;
Response may be result in somatic and visceral motor output; may result in altered patterns of neural activity (knowledge or emotion) ± motor expression.
Components of cognition: