Self-representation: searching for a neural signature of self-consciousness.
Human self-consciousness operates at different levels of complexity and at least comprises five different levels of representational processes. These five levels are nonconceptual representation, conceptual representation, sentential representation, meta-representation, and iterative meta-representation. These different levels of representation can be operationalized by taking a first-person-perspective that is involved in representational processes on different levels of complexity. We refer to experiments that operationalize a first-person-perspective on the level of conceptual and meta-representational self-consciousness. Interestingly, these experiments show converging evidence for a recruitment of medial cortical and parietal regions during taking a first-person-perspective, even when operating on different degrees of complexity. These data lend support for the speculative hypothesis, that there exist a neural signature for human self-consciousness that is recruited independent from the degree of representational complexity to be performed.
Newen
Albert
A
Philosophisches Seminar LFB III, Universität Bonn, Lennéstr 39, 53113 Bonn, Germany. newen@uni-bonn.de
Vogeley
Kai
K
D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D004532:Ego; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011603:Psychophysiology; D012649:Self Concept