Why are emotions such a telltale sign of consciousness? Because the actual execution of most emotions is carried out by the periaqueductal gray (PAG) in close cooperation with the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) and the parabrachial nucleus (PBN), the structures whose ensemble engenders bodily feelings (such as primordial feelings) and the variations thereof that we call emotional feelings.
This is a perfect example, IMO, of appeal-to-physiology. Why are emotions a telltale sign of consciousness? Because they are found in the same structures as feelings? hardly useful.
