Sceintific investigation of "Self Awareness"

Researchers presented to the test persons photos of their own face and of their partner (wife or friend) for comparison, in order to be able to control (“shorten out”) emotional reactions on known faces. For further comparison photos of unknown men and women were presented.

When looking at their own face broad areas of the right-hemispheric limbic system and the left frontal lope were activated, whereas when looking at the partner only a small area in the right hemisphere of the brain was activated.
The results show a dramatic difference in the neuronal processing of the own face in comparison to the one of an emotionally close person. In terms of brain evolution very young areas of the brain take part in self recognition: areas of the left frontal lobe, which are brought in connection with the ability of self reflection; but also the very old limbic system participates, which perhaps has to do with the diffuse feeling of “self” or “I”.

These studies could show for the first time, that “self-awareness” can be investigated by scientific methods. Through this, also completely new possibilities open up for studying frequent diseases as schizophrenia, which are accompanied by a fundamental disturbance of self-awareness.