title: The neural basis of semantic and episodic forms of self-knowledge: insights from functional neuroimaging.
abstract: Throughout evolution, hominids have developed greater capacity to think about themselves in abstract and symbolic ways. This process has reached its apex in humans with the construction of a concept of self as a distinct entity with a personal history. This chapter provides a review of recent functional neuroimaging studies that have investigated the neural correlates of such "higher-level" aspects of the human self, focusing in particular on processes that allow individuals to consciously represent and reflect on their own personal attributes (semantic forms of self-knowledge) and experiences (episodic forms of self-knowledge). These studies point to the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) as a key neural structure for processing various kinds of self-referential information. We speculate that the MPFC may mediate dynamic processes that appraise and code the self-relatedness or self-relevance of information. This brain region may thus play a key role in creating the mental model of the self that is displayed in our mind at a given moment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Sciences, Unversity of Liège, Liège, Belgium. a.dargembeau@ulg.ac.be
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: D'Argembeau
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salmon
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004532:Ego; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012660:Semantics