Self-awareness and Patient "R"

[slimvictor]

Interesting article about how self-awareness may not be located in any specific portion of the brain:

Brain damaged 'Patient R' challenges theories of self awareness


Excerpt:

According to some theories on how self-awareness arises in the brain, Patient R, a man who suffered a severe brain injury about 30 years ago, should not possess this aspect of consciousness.

In 1980, a bout of encephalitis caused by the common herpes simplex virus damaged his brain, leaving Patient R, now 57, with amnesia and unable to live on his own.

Even so, Patient R functions quite normally, said Justin Feinstein, a clinical neuropsychologist at the University of Iowa who has worked with him. "To a layperson, to meet him for the first time, you would have no idea anything is wrong with him," Feinstein said.

Feinstein and colleagues set out to test Patient R's level of self-awareness using a battery of tools that included a mirror, photos, tickling, a lemon, an onion, a personality assessment and an interview that asked profound questions like "What do you think happens after you die?"

Their conclusion — that Patient R's self-awareness is largely intact in spite of his brain injury — indicates certain regions of the brain thought crucial for self-awareness are not.

(...)

"The brain more than likely doesn't have a single region that is devoted to self awareness, but rather, the complex phenomenon likely emerges from much more distributed interactions between multiple brain regions,"

So, I wondered what everyone thinks about self-awareness.
I am sure that great philosophers have talked about it at length.
"I think therefore I am" and all that.
Opinions?

 

[L2R]

yeah have a look into "mind modularity". it is far more complex than localised functionality. each function seems to use a spread of brain area, many of which overlap and few correlate between people. my current joke locality under my handle is an area of the brain used so often at least one neuroscientist has referred to it as "the on button".

 

[panic in paradise]

So, I wondered what everyone thinks about self-awareness.
I am sure that great philosophers have talked about it at length.
"I think therefore I am" and all that.
Opinions?

The ego is what wants to be thought of, the mind and the physical senses dictate how we perceive it. If the ego can be forgotten long enough the mind and senses follow, allowing for free-thought amongst cosmic-consciousness, synchronicity, true undivided common sense.

if the mind is amazed or shocked by what is being realized, it will defend itself by creating distracting thoughts.

this awareness exists in all of us, it is the common braid, the information taken in as individuals in our own environment is what creates our personal reality, as a comfort blanket even as destructive as it might seem to others.