Conference in French : Perceive Oneself, Perceive Oneself in the Environment
by Didier DESOR

Abstract
Self-awareness needs as necessary preconditions to perceive the state of one’s own body and the values of various characteristics of the environment. The central nervous system perceives the internal and external environments by means of sensors and transducers that detect, then convert various kinds of energy (mechanical, electromagnetic, chemical…) into the nervous system own “language”, i.e. variations in the electric potentials of the neuronal membranes. This presentation reviews the main type of receptors encountered in animal kingdom, the means used for transductions, and highlights some of the roles of these devices in the adaptation of the organisms to their environments.