Cognitive Neuroscience of Self
How the brain constructs a sense of self across time.
Collaborative empirical work on how the brain constructs a sense of self across time. This research program bridges philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, and AI ethics.
Our studies examine dissociative disorders, meditation practices, and predictive processing models to understand how the brain maintains (and sometimes loses) its sense of a unified self. The self, we argue, is not a thing but a process — a predictive model that the brain constructs to reduce uncertainty about its own states.
Key Questions
- How does the brain construct and maintain a sense of self?
- What happens to selfhood in dissociative disorders and meditation?
- How does predictive processing account for self-awareness?
- What are the implications for personal identity and responsibility?
Selected Publications
- Self Without Substance — Nature Neuroscience, 2023
- Neural Correlates of Selfhood Across Cultures — International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, 2022