Self-representation: searching for a neural signature of self-consciousness

Conscious Cogn. 2003 Dec;12(4):529-43. doi: 10.1016/s1053-8100(03)00080-1.

Abstract

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.

MeSH terms

  • Awareness / physiology
  • Brain Mapping
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiology*
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Consciousness / physiology*
  • Ego*
  • Gyrus Cinguli / physiology
  • Humans
  • Internal-External Control
  • Nerve Net / physiology
  • Problem Solving / physiology
  • Psychomotor Performance / physiology
  • Psychophysiology
  • Self Concept*