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Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive neuroscience examines the neurological bases of psychological processes and mental functions. Scientists in this field study both patients with neurological disorders and intact individuals using tools like fMRI. Their research suggests regions in the right cerebral hemisphere play a role in bodily self-awareness, and areas in the left prefrontal cortex and right limbic system may be involved in self-recognition. However, a person's identity is complex and cannot be reduced only to neurological components, as it emerges from many distributed perceptions across the brain related to memory, relationships, values and more.

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Jeizl Jacinto
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30 views5 pages

Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive neuroscience examines the neurological bases of psychological processes and mental functions. Scientists in this field study both patients with neurological disorders and intact individuals using tools like fMRI. Their research suggests regions in the right cerebral hemisphere play a role in bodily self-awareness, and areas in the left prefrontal cortex and right limbic system may be involved in self-recognition. However, a person's identity is complex and cannot be reduced only to neurological components, as it emerges from many distributed perceptions across the brain related to memory, relationships, values and more.

Uploaded by

Jeizl Jacinto
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Cognitive Neuroscience

Only within the past few years have cognitive psychologists and cognitive
neuroscientists formed a close working relationship. Thus far, this union has
produced some of the most provocative developments in the study of our mental
character.
Cognitive psychologists are seeking neurological explanations for their
findings, and neuroscientists are turning to cognitive psychologists to explain
observations made in their laboratories. Every part of the cognitive process
from sensation to memory is supported by basic electrochemical processes
taking place in the brain and nervous system.

In recent years, the tools of cognitive neuroscience have been used to


address the problem of personal identity (Lieberman & Pfeifer, 2005). This
approach assumes that neurological processes produce our subjective
sense of unity and continuity. Such an approach is called “reductionistic,”
because it assumes that complex psychological phenomena can be reduced
to anatomical structures and biological events.

Scientists who examine the neurological substrates of psychological


processes typically follow two strategies. First, they examine the behavior of
patients who have neurological disorders or have suffered damage to
various areas of the brain.

Consider the case of verbal asomatognosia. Patients who suffer from this rare
neurological disorder deny ownership of their own limbs. To illustrate, in one study
(Feinberg, Haber, & Leeds, 1990), the experimenter lifted the left arm of patients
and asked them “What is this?” The most common reply was “it’s your hand” or
“it’s your arm,” indicating that the patients believed their own left arm belonged to
the experimenter. One patient called the arm “a breast” and a “deodorant,” while
another called it “my mother-in-law’s” hand. All reported cases of verbal
asomatognosia are the result of damage to the right cerebral hemisphere,
suggesting that regions in this portion of the brain play a critical role in
producing bodily self-awareness (Decety & Sommerville, 2003).

Along with the study of neurological disorders, neuroscientists also examine


areas of the brain that are activated when normally functioning individuals process
information about themselves. Most of these investigations use functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a procedure that monitors brain activity
by detecting changes in blood flow or blood oxygenation (Poldrack &
Wagner, 2004).

In one such study, Kircher et al. (2000) had heterosexual men view
photographs of themselves or their romantic partner. Numerous areas of the brain
were involved in both recognition tasks, but looking at one’s own face differentially
activated areas on the left prefrontal areas and the right limbic system, suggesting
that these areas might be critically involved in self-recognition (but see also, Turk,
Heatherton, Kelley, Funnell, Gazzaniga, & Macrae, 2002). Although research in
this areas is in its infancy, it is doubtful whether a reductionist approach will ever
solve the problem of personal identity (Feinberg, 2001).

Our identity includes a multitude of perceptions distributed across wide


areas of the brain. In addition to visual self-recognition and awareness of one’s
own body, our sense of self also includes autobiographical memory, knowledge of
our tastes, preferences, and habits, our social relationships, and our perceived
psychological qualities. All of these perceptions contribute to identity, but none is
essential. Water provides one way to think about this issue (Searle, 1992).

Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen molecules, but the properties


of water, such as its liquidity or transparency, cannot be found in these distinct
elements. Instead, water is an emergent phenomenon—a whole that cannot be
reduced to its constituent parts. In a comparable fashion, our sense of self is most
likely an emergent phenomenon that cannot be reduced to its neural components.
From our earliest days, we experience a multitude of sensations— some somatic,
some social, some psychological—and these disparate sensations are integrated
into a unified and organized experience we call “our selves.” In this sense, the self
is a psychological construction, not an anatomical one. It is comprised of
neurological processes but not derived from them.

The Personal Narrative Identity is the story that the … I constructs and
tells about the ME (McAdams, 1997, p. 62). Treating identity as a psychological
construction lies at the heart of the final perspective we will consider on the nature
of personal identity. This perspective asserts that identity is a story people tell
about themselves (Bruner, 1987; Cohler, 1982; Dennett, 1991; Filipp & Klauer,
1986; Gergen & Gergen, 1983; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 1996, 1997,
2001; McLean, Pasupathi, & Pals, 2007; Staudinger, 2001; Vollmer, 2005). Like
other stories, this personal narrative, as McAdams calls it (McAdams, 1996), has
settings, scenes, characters, plots, and themes.

It includes autobiographical memories of the past, a description of the


present self, and our hopes and fears for the future.

Effective personal narratives typically accomplish three goals.

First, they provide continuity by explaining how we came to be the person


we are today.

Second, they provide unity by integrating our various roles, relationships,


and perceived characteristics into a coherent identity.

Third, they outline visions of the future and the steps we plan on taking to
become the person we would like to become (or avoid becoming the person we
are afraid of becoming).

Although cultures influence the precise form these stories take, most
personal narratives contain one or two critical incidents or “turning point”
experiences. These experiences (which may not be recognized as such until years
later) usually involve the learning of an important life lesson or a powerful insight
about one’s values and beliefs (McLean, 2005).
For example, a person’s narrative might include the time they refused to
succumb to peer pressure as a way of illustrating their burgeoning independence
and maturity (“Watching everyone doing drugs made me realize I didn’t need to
have other kids’ approval in order to feel good about myself. That was the first time
in my life I felt grown up and strong.”)

The personal narrative is not a complete or literal recollection of one’s


life. It is an edited, selective version that includes some events and excludes
others. Moreover, it is subject to revision. As individuals age, they may regard a
previous experience as being less important than it used to be, or view a formally
unimportant event as now being self defining. Often times these revisions take
place in the form of conversation, when individuals relate these stories to others.
This is a critical aspect of the personal narrative. Life stories are not
constructed solely for our own benefit; instead, they are shared with others and
other people’s expectations and reactions shape the narrative’s content and form
(McLean et al., 2007; Pasupathi, 2001; Thorne, 2000).

In this sense, personal narratives are a social construction. Many


theorists believe that personal narratives are not constructed until
adolescence (McAdams, 2001; McLean & Pratt, 2006; Habermas & Bluck, 2000).
Younger children have autobiographical memories and possess a self-concept,
but they do not integrate these various aspect of self into a coherent identity until
they face the adolescent identity crisis Erikson outlined.

This change comes about for cognitive reasons—young children do not


possess the ability to think abstractly and integrate diverse elements of a story into
an overall theme—and motivational reasons—young children aren’t expected to
have constructed a coherent story of their life in the service of forming a mature
identity. Adolescence continues to play a key role in our personal narrative
in later life as well. When individuals of various ages are asked to recall important
events in their life, they show a distinct tendency to remember more events from a
period of life that encompasses late childhood to early adulthood (10-30 years of
age) (Rubin, Rahhal, & Poon, 1998).
This “autobiographical memory bump” (as it is called) not only
includes events in our own life, but also important cultural experiences, such
as movies, news events, and music. Several factors combine to produce this
memory bump, including the overrepresentation of “first-time” experiences (e.g.,
many people remember their first kiss but few remember their 52nd) and a
tendency to share our stories with others during this stage of life in an attempt to
promote intimacy and connectedness.

Today, the World Wide Web provides an interesting repository for


these personal narratives. Many people (and especially adolescents and
young adults) now keep a BLOG or share their personal experiences and
photographs through websites such as Twitter and Facebook. These “public
diaries” enable individuals to relate their life story to others, and read and comment
on other people’s personal narratives. Ultimately, the prevalence of this form of
discourse may shape the nature of identity itself, as the barriers between self and
others become increasingly narrowed.

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