ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three kinds of traces: those that are directly conscious or able to be recalled to consciousness, those that escape consciousness secondarily through mechanisms of reassociation leading to a discontinuity between perception and trace, and those that are unconscious from the beginning. Through the mechanisms of plasticity, experience inscribes traces in the neural circuits. Certain of these traces, which can be directly recalled to awareness, underlie memory and learning. The activation of mnemic traces associated with the somatic state of unpleasure in connection with a history of frustration interferes with decision making to the point of inhibiting action. This unconscious internal reality in fact contributes in a determinative way to decision making. Unconscious internal reality is in fact what makes people unique beings. The amygdala, at the interface between sensory stimuli and the autonomic and endocrine systems controlling homeostasis, seems to contribute strongly to the constitution of this unconscious internal reality.
