W12sMYNOTES

Discussion Board 12 With the content of week 12 in mind, I found the relation of time to the existence of our identity fascinating. When we look into identity, it can be related to, for instance, spiritual beliefs, a pattern of habits, and professions, among a multitude of many other things and all of which are subject to change over time. Change is inevitable through time that ages us, allows for growth and degrades things. Nevertheless, despite having changes in their body, brain and environment, individuals experience self and identity through first-person conscious experience. Now, resting state activity consists of continuous changes, known as variability, needed for individuals to experience their identity or self. Pathology of variability is seen among the people living with schizophrenia, where they have low variability of resting state activity leading them to experience distributed identity. In cases of absolutely no resting state activity of the cortical midline structure of the brain, no neuronal activity will happen, resulting in a coma state and brain dead at the end. My returning question is, what is the argument put forwards by philosopher Parfit, and do you support his thought, why /or why not? Identity and time The paradox • Everything in the body changes over time • Sleep=change in resting state • Morning regain your normal sense of self - How do you reconcile the two? • Resting- state variability : healthy, ongoing change - Lack of variability(amplitude) : vegetative state - Change in the brain=persistence of identity or self - Andrew(schizophrenia): discontinuity in brain=discontinuity in self or identity Diachronic and synchronic identity • What accounts for continuity over time? - body, memory, mind(entity )? = a mixed bag of problems • What accounts for psychological continuity over time? Diachronic identity - If memory accounts for episodes/events over time, does it constitute personal identity? • What accounts for personal identity at a time: synchronic identity - Dissociative identity disorder= more than one identity at a time Memories and identity • Locke: memory tracks identity over time; consciousness tracks subjectivity over time, yes? No? • Neuro-philosophy: which kind of memory? LTM, STM, episodic/autobiographical, procedural ? - Which brain parts? Prefrontal cortex, somatosensory, motor, hippocampus, CMS-middle of brain • Which best tracks personal identity? • Is memory a solid candidate for tracking personal identity? - Is it reliable enough? • Interestingly : Resting -state’s functional connectivity and its entropy correlates with the degree of stressful or traumatic experiences - Amygdala (emotions) and midline regions related to sense of self (p. 183) Body and mind • Other criteria than memory? Body? Brain? Mind? Schizophrenia? Am I my brain or not? • “I am my brain”( Nagel, 1974)

- Damage to brain? - Damage to liver? • Midline structures: variability (activity levels) and functional connectivity with many brain other parts = continuity of change - Correlated with self-related information & continuous sense of self (over time) - Paradox? Discontinuity and variability mediates continuity of personal identity ? • Parfit : survival mediates identity - Psychological continuity based on survival - Or : psychological connectedness: memories - Parfit disagrees with Nagel’s brain claim too. - Is this sound? - What did we learn from schizophrenic patients and brain variability ? – low resting state activity – low variability of the RSA Time and self-continuity • Self continuity is a function of time : time determines the balance between continuity and discontinuity . - More time less self-continuity or self- identity over time - 100% continuity =brain death: death of self and personhood - 100% discontinuity =schizophrenia: complete disconnection from the world . Time, brain, self-continuity • Perigenual anterior cingulate cortex(PACC): mediating self-continuity and temporal discounting (TD): the longer the delay in reward($ for correct answer) the less interest in obtaining the reward, and less value placed on the stimulus. Negative correlation - PACC: self-relatedness - Personal identity=linking self to time - Brain(resting state) mediates self(psychologically) and time(world and brain based) - Resting-state= neural discontinuity - Schizophrenia= lack of normal discontinuity= disruption in psychological continuity Schizophrenia and more • Do changes in brain cause changes in self-continuity or identity over time? - DBS and injection of fetal cells in Parkinson’s - Schizophrenia - DBS in depression, close to PACC, it works Time and brain • CMS: involved in time perception and sense of time(past and future) -ventro-and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, PACC and PCC(p. 201) * Resting state: broad spectrum of frequency ranges(variability) - longer time scale in slow frequency: 0.001-0.1 Hz - shorter in faster: 1-180 Hz - Lloyd: midline regions as “dynamic temporal network” - Resting-state activity includes different time scales that relate to each other= cross frequency coupling - If not= temporal parallelism • ( hypothesis )Temporal parallelism=neuronal discontinuity in resting state=schizophrenia: psychological discontinuity or identity - schizophrenia: brain-based time is decoupled from world—based time= world-brain relation disrupted * Testimony: temporal gaps: lack of seamless transitions (p. 204, 205) - analogy : pearls on a chain - Pearls: mental content - Chain: spatio-temporal continuity of the resting-state - Lack of order and continuity in consciousness (we take for granted) Testimony