Abstract
The self includes complicated and heterogeneous functions. Researchers have divided the self into three distinct functions called “agency,” “ownership,” and “narrative self”. These correspond to psychiatric symptoms, behavioral characteristics and neural responses, but their relationship with brain structure is unclear. This study examined the relationship between the subjectivity of self-related malfunctions and brain structure in terms of gray matter (GM) volume in 96 healthy people. They completed a recently developed self-reported questionnaire called the Embodied Sense of Self Scale (ESSS) that measures self-related malfunctions. The ESSS has three subscales reflecting the three distinct functions of the self. We also determined the participants’ brain structures using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Multiple regression analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between ownership malfunction and the insular cortex GM volume. A relationship with brain structure could thus only be confirmed for the ESSS “ownership” subscale. This finding suggests that distinct brain structures feel ownership and that the ESSS could partly screen for distinct brain structures.
Highlights
Researchers have searched for the ‘‘self’’ in the brain, but no specific region seems to be dedicated to this (Legrand and Ruby, 2009)
We found that narrative subscale scores were positively correlated with gray matter (GM) volumes in the left lingual gyrus, the left inferior temporal gyrus, the right cuneus, the left superior temporal pole and the left precuneus
Embodied Sense of Self Scale (ESSS)-measured, ownership-related self malfunctions in daily life were confirmed to be associated with the insular cortex
Summary
Researchers have searched for the ‘‘self’’ (consciousness) in the brain, but no specific region seems to be dedicated to this (Legrand and Ruby, 2009). This is probably because the entire brain is involved in multiple functions and works as a network, forming what is called the default mode network (Northoff et al, 2006; Grimm et al, 2011; Qin and Northoff, 2011; Lipsman et al, 2014). The minimal self is the online sensation of self and includes the sense of body (i.e., ownership) and action (i.e., agency). The narrative self is the offline storage for maintaining the sense of past and future self and includes autobiographical memory, personality and identity
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