Brain Scans Confirm There's a Part of You Who Remains 'You' Through Your Life

Brain Scans Confirm There's a Part of You Who Remains 'You' Through Your Life

At the core of your individuality, a kernel of self-awareness joins memories of the past with the fleeting senses of this present and adds a little expectation for the long run.

A new, small psychobiological study weighs, considering brain scans to conclude that at least some of you are really consistent as you age and grow.

"In our analysis, we attempted to answer the question of whether we're the same person throughout our own lives," states Miguel Rubianes, a neuroscientist from the Complutense University of Madrid.

"In conjunction with the previous literature, our results indicate that there is a component that stays stable while the other part is much more vulnerable to change over time."

Self-continuity forms the basis of identity. Each time you use the word 'I,' you refer to a thread that illuminates a series of encounters into a tapestry of a lifetime, representing a connection between yourself and your youth with a single yet to emerge.

Consider the allegory of Theseus's ship, or even the grandfather's ax paradox -- a tool that's had its shaft replaced, in addition to its mind, but is still somehow the same ax that belonged to the grandfather.

If our experiences affect us, swapping our identity components with every heartbreak and every promotion, every ailment, and each windfall, can we truly say we see ourselves as the same person now as we were when we were four years old?

However, there are perspectives that psychology -- as well as the wiring of our neurological programming -- can flesh out.

Rubianes and his team focussed primarily on the how and when' of neurology dealing with familiar faces, relying on previous research that suggests visual self-recognition can function as a sign of earning a relationship with one's impression of self.

In the self-reference effect, we do a much better job of recalling or recognizing information if it's personally attached to us in some way, such as seeing our own face in a photograph.

While there's plenty of evidence supporting the occurrence's existence, the exact timing and mechanics of this process within our brain remain an open question.

Conflicting studies have emphasized different neurological processes for distinguishing our own faces from other people, highlighting diverse regions of the mind used to recognize and attribute meaning to sets of recognizable features.

Determining the sorts of neurological activity involved may tell us whether we're triggered by recognizing that our own faces, such as meeting an old friend, or making a genuine connection with the self it represents, both present and past.

To work out this, the team conducted a recognition activity using a bunch of 20 pupils. Each was presented with 27 pictures, including some of their face, the face of a close friend, along with an unfamiliar face, all at different life phases.

Every picture flashed up on a screen one moment at a time, where the player needed to press a button to spot who they saw, friend, or stranger. A second trial asked them to recognize the individual's life stage: childhood, adolescence, or adulthood.

Meanwhile, dozens of electrodes were active, scoping out the combination of brainwaves buzzing in their grey matter, painting a map of action.

That map, and the timing of these participants' answers, strongly imply that our perception of self -- that sense of 'I' -- gets updated throughout our life, giving it stability. We actually do the procedure that gap-toothed portrait of us in fourth grade as ourselves, not just a recognizable image of a kid who happens to talk about our thoughts.

The analysis also discovered interesting similarities in how we process impressions of our previous selves and our close friends, hinting at sophistication in how time might shape impressions of our identity.

Of course, it is essential to note that this research had been conducted on small sample size and is far from the last word on the subject.

Finding a rigid neurological underpinning for our awareness of self that's tweaked by time and experience neatly reflects other studies that indicate there are also cultural influences on how we perceive individuality.

Significantly, neurological descriptions of the particular brain pieces responsible for sorting oneself by a stranger can better understand why some people don't discuss this belief.

Disturbances in that thread of recognition frequently specify conditions such as schizophrenia, putting individuals at increased risk of self-harm.

"This shows the importance of clinical and basic research alike in the study of the part of personal individuality, as this claims to be a far more important concept than was previously thought and might play an essential role in psychological assessment and intervention procedures," says Rubianes.

Some days we all feel just like we are unsure of exactly who we are. Rest assured, there is a fantastic chance that deep within your mind, you're always going to be there.