Benito P. Damasceno
Professor Associado, Dep. de Neurologia, FCM/UNICAMP

Abstract
The human mind is not an isolated or a priori “faculty”, but a complex “activity”, characterized by its systemic structure, mediated nature and historic-social origin. Its systemic structure comprises a dynamic complex of psychological (volitive, affective, and cognitive) components in connection with a distributed network of brain regions, each one contributing with basic operations to the accomplishment of the activity as a whole. Its mediated (semantic) character results from the fact that the human material actions are preceded or accompanied by mental operations, that is, by symbolic representations, projects, and programs. Ontogenetically, the mental activity is an internalreconstruction (“virtual”) of external actions with things and people. The interactions with people, particularly the social-argumentative use of language signs, are internalized as the ability of reflection and judgement.

mciencia@unicamp.br