Tag: Self as evolved illusion

Create yourself concept. Good looking young man drawing a picture, sketch of himself

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 10, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anterior precuneus, Brain and sense of self, Christina Starmans, David Rudrauf, Diana Kwon, John Riehl, Patient R, Robert Martone, Self as concept, Self as evolved illusion, Self-awareness, Sofia Deleniv, ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)}

Our Essential “I”ness … the Search for Its Address in the Brain

_{Does “I” — the first person singular — have or need a fixed address in the brain?} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 10, 2023

6

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Neuroscience seems caught between a quest for the exact spot where self-awareness is generated and theorizing that self-awareness is really an illusion. A search for the spot in the brain that corresponds to “I” — as in Descartes’ famous formulation, “I think, therefore I am” begins with an assumption: That there is any such address in the brain. How is the search coming? Historically, we have located our sense of self in our hearts or heads. Both locations make sense, in different ways. Our hearts pound when we have strong feelings. As for our heads, it’s more complicated… When, in as-yet unpublished work, Christina Starmans and her colleagues showed people from the US and India pictures of flies circling around Read More ›