Abstract
Although theories that examine direct links between behavior and brain remain incomplete, it is known that brain expansion significantly correlates with caloric and oxygen demands. Therefore, one of the principles governing evolutionary cognitive neuroscience is that cognitive abilities that require significant brain function (and/or structural support) must be accompanied by significant fitness benefit to offset the increased metabolic demands. One such capacity is self-awareness (SA), which (1) is found only in the greater apes and (2) remains unclear in terms of both cortical underpinning and possible fitness benefit. In the current experiment, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the prefrontal cortex during a spatial perspective-taking task involving self and other viewpoints. It was found that delivery of TMS to the right prefrontal region disrupted self-, but not other-, perspective. These data suggest that self-awareness may have evolved in concert with other right hemisphere cognitive abilities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barnacz, A. L., Johnson, A., Constantino, P., & Keenan, J. P. (2004). Schizotypal personality traits and deception: The role of self-awareness. Schizophrenia Research, 70, 115–116.
Cedrus Corporation (1999). SuperLab experimental lab software, Version 2.01. San Pedro, CA.
Decety, J., & Sommerville, J. A. (2003). Shared representations between self and other: A social cognitive neuroscience view. Trends in Cognitive Science, 7, 527–533.
Feinberg, T. (2001). Altered egos: How the brain creates the self. New York: Oxford University Press.
Feinberg, T., & Keenan, J. P. (2005). Where in the brain is the self? Consciousness and Cognition, 14, 661–678.
Gallup Jr., G. G. (1970). Chimpanzees: Self-recognition. Science, 167, 86–87.
Gallup Jr., G. G. (1982). Self-awareness and the emergence of mind in primates. American Journal of Primatology, 2, 237–248.
Johnson, A., Barnacz, A., Constantino, P., Triano, J., Shackelford, T., & Keenan, J. P. (2004). Female deception detection as a function of commitment and self-awareness. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1417–1424.
Keenan, J. P. (1998). An examination of right dorsolateral prefrontal lobe function in self-directed attention by use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroencephalograph, and visual evoked potentials. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University at Albany, Albany.
Keenan, J. P. (2001). A thing done well: A reply to Anttu Revonsuo’s “Can functional brain imaging discover consciousness?” Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8, 31–33.
Keenan, J. P., Gallup Jr., G. G., & Falk, D. (2003a). The face in the mirror: The search for the origins of consciousness. New York: Harper Collins.
Keenan, J. P., Wheeler, M., Platek, S. M., Lardi, G., & Lassonde, M. (2003b). Self-face processing in a callosotomy patient. European Journal of Neuroscience, 18, 2391–2395.
Keenan, J. P., Rubio, J., Racioppi, C., Johnson, A., & Barnacz, A. (2005). The right hemisphere and the dark side of consciousness. Cortex, 41, 695–704.
Lou, H., Luber, B., Crupain, M., Keenan, J.P., Nowak, M., Kjaer, T., et al. (2004). Who am I? On the nature of subjectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101, 6827–6832.
Marino, L. (2006). Evolution of the brain and cognition in cetaceans. In S. Platek, J. P. Keenan, & T. Shackelford (Eds.), Evolutionary cognitive neuroscience (pp. 163–193). Boston: MIT Press.
Meador, K. J., Loring, D. W., Feinberg, T. E., Lee, G. P., & Nichols, M. E. (2000). Anosognosia and asomatognosia during intracarotid amobarbitol inactivation. Neurology, 55, 816–820.
Okamoto, M., Dan, H., Sakamoto, K., Takeo, K., Shimizu, K., Kohno, S., et al. (2004). Where am I? The neurological correlates of self and other. Cognitive Brain Research, 19, 114–122.
Platek, S. M., Keenan, J. P., Gallup Jr., G. G., & Mohamed, F. B. (2004). Where am I? The neurological correlates of self and other. Cognitive Brain Research, (2), 114–122.
Premack, D., & Woodruf, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4, 515–526.
Ramachandran, V. S., & Rogers-Ramachandran, D. (1996). Denial of disabilities in anosognosia. Nature, 382, 501.
Rossini, P. M., Barker, A. T., Berardelli, A. et al. (1994). Non-invasive electrical and magnetic stimulation of the brain, spinal cord and roots: Basic principles and procedures for routine clinical application. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 91, 79–92.
Spangenberg, K. B., Wagner, M. T., Bachman, D. L., & Hendrix, S. (1997). Delusional misidentification symptom (mirror sign) following watershed infarction: A neurobehavioral case study. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 2, 408.
Stuss, D. T., Gallup Jr., G. G., & Alexander, M. P. (2001). The frontal lobes are necessary for “Theory of Mind.” Brain, 124, 279–286.
Uddin, L. Q., Iacoboni, M., Lange, C., & Keenan, J. P. (2007). The self and social cognition: the role of cortical midline structures and mirror neurons. Trends in Cognitive Science, 11(4), 153–157.
Uddin, L. Q., Molnar-Szakacs, I., Zaidel, E., & Iacoboni, M. (2006). rTMS to the right inferior parietal lobule disrupts self-other discrimination. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1, 65–71.
Vogeley, K., Bussfeld, P., Newen, A., Herrmann, S., Happe, F., Falkai, P. et al. (2001). Mind reading: Neural mechanisms of theory of mind and self-perspective. Neuroimage, 14, 170–181.
Vogeley, K., May, M., Ritzl, A., Falkai, P., Zilles, K., & Fink, G. R. (2004). Neural correlates of first-person perspective as one constituent of human self-consciousness. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 817–827.
Wassermann, E. M. (1996). Risk and safety of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: Report and suggested guidelines from the international workshop on the safety of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Electroencephalography in Clinical Neurophysiology, 108, 1–16.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guise, K., Kelly, K., Romanowski, J. et al. The Anatomical and Evolutionary Relationship between Self-awareness and Theory of Mind. Hum Nat 18, 132–142 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-007-9009-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-007-9009-x