Locus is a location that a certain object or phenomenon has in the world. This concept is widely used in biology, genetics and psychology to describe how information or behavior is associated with a specific location in the body or brain. It can be both physical and mental. Physical locus describes the location of an object, such as a hand or eye, in space. A mental locus can refer to a thought, feeling, or memory associated with a specific area of the brain.
Loci are an important concept for the study of the psyche. They help to understand how thinking and perception work in humans and how different areas of the brain interact with each other when processing information. For example, some patients with Capgras syndrome may believe that a person in their environment is an impostor, despite evidence to the contrary. This may be due to the fact that there are connections between a certain locus (the person they see) and the positive locus “real self”, the lack of connection between these concepts leads to a disorder of consciousness.
Another example of how loci are involved in mental life is associated with memory. The intention to remember information is associated with the presence of connections between neural networks located in different areas of the brain. This connection is called an “association map” - a network of connections between neurons in all areas associated with information processing. If there are no sufficient