Given the enormous scope of research questions concerning self-awareness, it is no surprise that a quick Google search on this topic unearths over 569 million hits. However, self-awareness is not just a buzzword. It provides the information essential for conscious self-monitoring or metacognition. It is a tool for consciously regulating behavior and adjusting our experiences of the world.
There are hundreds of articles, books, and even documentaries about self-awareness and what it takes to cultivate it. But what about the biology, or more specifically, the brain science behind this experience? Below, we examine the challenges encountered in investigating the biology of this cognitive state and what brain studies are now finding when it comes to self-awareness and treating different disorders.
What is Self-Awareness?
Even though most people think they are self-aware, only 10-15 percent of people fit the criteria, according to a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review. Other key points found in the study included:
- There are two types of self-awareness: internal – how someone sees themselves and external – how others view them.
- Experience and power can hinder this trait.
- Self-awareness is not one truth.
This is just one of many studies on self-awareness. However, most researchers tend to agree that self-awareness is the ability to see oneself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection. And while it may not be possible to attain total objectivity about oneself (a debate that rages continuously throughout the history of philosophy), there are certainly degrees of self-awareness – it exists on a spectrum. However, when discussing the brain science behind this cognitive state – technology and innovation keep showing investigators new and exciting discoveries.
The Brain Science Behind Self-Awareness: Challenges & Discoveries
One review in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews reports that until recently, self-awareness was considered off-limits for the natural sciences. Neurobiological research shunned the complex question of how and why consciousness and self-awareness arise from a physical basis. Some of the difficulties encountered in investigating the biology of self-awareness included:
- The discrepancies between the effort applied to setting up self-awareness experiments and discussing the experimental results while overlooking the concept of self-awareness.
- The challenges related to consciousness and the theory that we never have experiences of ourselves, but only on the contents of consciousness.
The report states that researchers decided that minimal self-awareness and narrative self-awareness techniques could address these challenges. Minimal self-awareness would be investigated using rapidly presented visual stimuli of different duration and the first person perspective. Narrative self-awareness would be used to retrieve episodic memory of previous judgments. Both techniques allowed researchers to move beyond earlier limitations and give them insights into the biological origin and function of self-awareness.
So, where are researchers today? Brain-imaging technology has neuroscientists believing the cerebral cortex is critical for self-awareness – particularly the anterior cingulate cortex, the insular cortex, and the medial prefrontal cortex regions. Numerous neuroimaging studies suggest that thinking about ourselves, recognizing images of ourselves, and reflecting on our thoughts and feelings – or different forms of self-awareness – involve this outermost, wrinkly part of the brain. However, new evidence has added uncertainty to this theory. A University of Iowa research team challenged this theory by showing that self-awareness is more a product of a patchwork of pathways in the brain, including other regions, rather than confined to specific areas. The findings came from an opportunity to study a person, “Patient R,” with extensive brain damage to the regions believed critical for self-awareness.
According to Scientific American, Patient R could not remember much of what happened between 1970 and 1980. He also had great difficulty forming new memories and could not smell or taste. Nevertheless, he still knew who he was. Patient R passed all standard self-awareness tests. He also demonstrated self-recognition, both when looking in the mirror and identifying himself in photographs. The findings suggested that the insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex are not required for most aspects of self-awareness. Instead, it found that this cognitive state is likely to emerge from more diffused interactions among brain networks, including the brainstem, thalamus, and posteromedial cortices. David Rudrauf, the co-author of the paper, states, “What this research shows is that self-awareness corresponds to a brain process that cannot be localized to a single region of the brain.”
New Frontiers
Researchers now have new insights into the biological origin and function of self-awareness and how its impediment in disease may account for major disorders in conscious regulation. A Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews report revealed that fMRI imaging showed shifting cerebral activation patterns with changing moments of consciousness during mind wandering, both during meditation and in the normal resting conscious state. Despite the variability, a collection of medial paralimbic regions were continuously active. Researchers concluded that the medial paralimbic network and connected regions are associated with self-awareness. It also found that dopamine improves self-awareness and increases gamma power through the medial prefrontal/anterior cingulate cortex.
During the study, electromagnetic manipulation demonstrated that the medial paralimbic network is necessary for the generation of self-awareness. More specifically, researchers found that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) targeting these regions impedes different aspects of self-awareness. The paralimbic network is linked by high-frequency oscillations and regulated by dopamine. The oscillations are generated by rhythmic GABA-ergic inhibitory activity in interneurons. These hubs are flooded with interneurons and, therefore, are highly vulnerable to disturbed energy supply. What does this all mean? Deficient paralimbic activity and self-awareness are characteristic features of many disorders with impaired oxygen levels (i.e., substance use disorders). The good news? The study suggested that these disorders may be treated by targeting interneurons. One therapeutic strategy is to increase dopaminergic activity and to improve paralimbic interaction. This approach would include relaxation meditation like yoga Nidra or mindfulness meditation, which in independent studies have shown to increase dopamine and induce growth in paralimbic structures.
What does the future hold? Studies like these are shining a light on the role of dopamine in self-awareness and are resulting in advances in new therapeutics. Case in point, in a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, researchers found that conscious brain activity seems to be linked to the brain’s dopamine and that dopamine plays a central role in maintaining consciousness. And the most exciting aspect of this research (according to investigators) is that it gives hope for better treatments of consciousness disorders (i.e., comas), using drugs that act on dopamine.
