The Neural Basis of the Self

[David Baxter PhD]

The Neural Basis of the Self
By Meghan Meyer, PhD candidate, BrainBlogger
September 19, 2009

Perhaps the most personal and most quintessentially human aspect of our existence is the experience of our ‘self.’ What contemporary philosopher Daniel Dennett has described as the unitary narration of our experience, the ‘author’ of our life. Artists, writers, philosophers and psychologists dedicate much of their attention to describing and discerning the kernels of the self. And now, cognitive neuroscientists have entered the debate. With the recent advent of brain imaging technologies, researchers now have a tool to take a stab at this fundamental, though esoteric, question.

Based on brain imaging studies, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) seems to play a pivotal role in the self. For example, the MPFC is more active when participants make judgments about themselves, compared to other semantic judgments (i.e. I am a good friend vs. you need water to live). Similarly, MPFC is recruited when subjects retrieve memories about themselves compared to a fictional character. Interestingly, the MPFC is also recruited when participants passively rest while undergoing an fMRI scan. Until recently, most fMRI scans required that participants perform cognitive tasks during scanning, and researchers mapped statistically significant brain activation to cognitive components of the task. However, a recent trend in brain imaging is to identify the neural circuitry active during humans’ resting state, or when they are not performing tasks and instead are free to think about whatever they want. During such scans, a few brain areas are active, including the MPFC. It has been hypothesized that the MPFC activation represents the ongoing self-related processing during a conscious state, orchestrating the ‘authorship’ of our daily experiences.

However, such interpretations are controversial. Most notably, skeptics argue that 2identifying the neuroanatomy during rest does not reveal anything about the cognitive content that corresponds with it. Although previous studies identify the MPFC as crucial in self judgments and reflection, this is not enough evidence to suggest that during our day-to-day experience, it is the hub unifying and personalizing our conscious experience.

 

[Daniel E.]

From a review of the book mentioned in the article:

It's like examining the Sistine Chapel with a flashlight - he misses the big picture.

Amazon.com: Proust Was a Neuroscientist

And that review has 150 positive votes

 

[David Baxter PhD]

There's also this one:

150 of 180 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars No, he wasn't., January 23, 2008

But whether or not "Proust was a neuroscientist", what intersted me about the article was the search for neuropsychological foundations of self and the notion that psychological concepts previously considered to be inaccessible to neurology and neuropsychology may not be after all.

 

[Daniel E.]

I'm still waiting for my Windows 7 brain interface. I think the UPS guy may have lost the package.

On a serious note:

A Robust Spelling Device for Locked-In Patients Based on Real-Time fMRI

 

[David Baxter PhD]

There are also some problems with the interpretation of MRI data in these sorts of studies.

See:

• Neuroskeptic: fMRI Gets Slap in the Face with a Dead Fish
  
• What a dead salmon reminds us about fMRI analysis ? Stanford Center for Law & the Biosciences Blog
  
• Scanning Dead Salmon in fMRI Machine Highlights Risk of Red Herrings | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

[Daniel E.]

:lol: The salmon was probably in love, too.