Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Multiple aspects related to self-awareness and the awareness of others: an electroencephalography study

  • Basic Neurosciences, Genetics and Immunology - Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Neural Transmission Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The effect of possessive pronouns on the encoding of pronoun-noun associations (e.g., my garden) was investigated using the electroencephalography (EEG). Following an alphabetical, semantic and a contextual encoding instruction depth of noun processing was varied within three separate experiments in order to manipulate the grade of awareness related to verbal information processing. Only for the semantic encoding task (lexical decision) response time was significantly longer for nouns associated with the pronoun “mein” (German for “my”) than for nouns associated with the pronoun “ein” (German for “a”) although pronouns were not to be consciously processed at all. Following recognition tests related to nouns (without their previously associated pronouns) revealed no significant differences related to the number of correctly identified repeated nouns (hits) depending on the kind of previously associated pronoun. The analysis of neurophysiological data revealed a time range between about 250 ms and 400 ms after stimulus onset within which significant pronoun × electrode interactions occurred. No interaction with depth of word processing was found. Overlaid EEG curves, t maps and low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) demonstrate that in this time range “mein” and “sein” associated conditions elicit similar brain activity, both more negative, compared to the “ein” associated condition over occipital electrodes. On the other hand, at left temporal sites the “mein” condition elicited more negative potentials than both other conditions. It is interpreted that EEG recordings reveal two relevant areas, which are sensitive to the concept of a person (as represented by a personal pronoun) between about 250 ms and 400 ms after stimulus onset. One area is located in the occipital region and can distinguish between personal engagement and a neutral condition and the other area is located in the temporal region and is able to distinguish between oneself and somebody else. Together with our previous MEG results (Walla et al. in Neuropsychologia 45:796–809, 2007) we want to combine the inferences in the frame of the “multiple aspects” hypothesis related to research on self-awareness and the awareness of others.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allan K, Rugg MD (1997) An event-related potential study of explicit memory on tests of cued recall and recognition. Neuropsychologia 35(4):387–397

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen S, Ring H, Moriarty J, Schmitz B, Costa D, Ell P (1994) The brain basis of theory of mind: the role of the orbitofrontal region. Br J Psychiatry 165:640–649

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Craik FIM, Lockhart RS (1972) Levels of processing: a framework for memory research. J Verb Learn Verb Behav 11:671–684

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craik FIM, Moroz TM, Moscovitch M, Stuss DT, Winocur G, Tulving E, Kapur S (1999) In search of the self: a positron emission tomography study. Psychol Sci 10:26–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Argembeau A, Ruby P, Colette F, Degueldre C, Balteau E, Luxen A, Maquet P, Salmon E (2007) Distinct regions of the medial prefrontal cortex are associated with self-referential processing and perspective taking. J Cogn Neurosci 19(6):935–944

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Farrer C, Frith CD (2002) Experiencing oneself vs another person as being the cause of an action: the neural correlates of the experience of agency. Neuroimage 15:596–603

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farrer C, Franck N, Georgieff N, Frith CD, Decety J, Jeannerod M (2003) Modulating the experience of agency: a positron emission tomography study. Neuroimage 18(2):324–333

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher PC, Happe F, Frith U, Baker SC, Dolan RJ, Frackowiak RSJ, Frith CD (1995) Other minds in the brain: a functional imaging study of ‘theory of mind’ in story comprehension. Cognition 57:109–128

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Frith CD, Frith U (1999) Interacting minds, a biological basis. Science 286:1692–1695

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher HL, Happe F, Brunswick N, Fletcher PC, Frith U, Frith CD (2000) Reading the mind in cartoons and stories: an fMRI study of ‘theory of mind’ in verbal and nonverbal tasks. Neuropsychologia 38:11–21

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kircher TTJ, Brammer M, Bullmore E, Simmons A, Bartels M, David AS (2002) The neural correlates of intentional and incidental self processing. Neuropsychologia 40:683–692

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lu LH, Crosson B, Nadeau SE, Heilman KM, Gonzalez-Rothi LJ, Raymer A, Gilmore RL, Bauer RM, Roper SN (2002) Category-specific naming deficits for objects and actions: semantic attribute and grammatical role hypotheses. Neuropsychologia 40(9):1608–1621

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy G, Wood CC (1985) Scalp distributions of event-related potentials: an ambiguity associated with analysis of variance models. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 62:203–208

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell JP (2007) Activity in right temporo-parietal junction is not selective for Theory-Of-Mind. Cerebral Cortex. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm051 (ahead of print)

  • Paller KA, Kutas M (1992) Brain potentials during retrieval provide neurophysiological support for the distinction between conscious recollection and priming. J Cogn Neurosci 4:375–391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pascual-Marqui RD, Michel CM, Lehmann D (1994) Low resolution electromagnetic tomography: a new method for localizing electrical activity in the brain. Int J Psychophysiol 18:49–65

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pizzagalli DA, Lehmann D, Hendrick AM, Regard M, Pascual-Marqui RD, Davidson RJ (2002) Affective judgements of faces modulate early activity (∼160 ms) within the fusiform gyri. Neuroimage 16:663–677

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pfeifer JH, Lieberman MD, Dapretto M (2007) “I know you are but what am I?!”: neural bases of self- and social knowledge retrieval in children and adults. J Cogn Neurosci 19(8):1323–1337

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Premack D, Woodruff G (1978a) Chimpanzee problem-solving: a test for comprehension. Science 202(4367):532–535

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Premack D, Woodruff G (1978b) Does the chimpanzee have a “theory of mind?”. Behav Brain Sci 4:515–526

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rugg MD, Mark RE, Walla P, Schloerscheidt AM, Birch CS, Allan K (1998) Dissociation of the neural correlates of implicit and explicit memory. Nature 392:595–598

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saxe R, Kanwisher N (2003) People thinking about thinking people. The role of the temporo-parietal junction in “theory of mind”. Neuroimage 19:1835–1842

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saxe R, Wexler A (2005) Making sense of another mind: the role of the right temporo-parietal junction. Neuropsychologia 43:1391–1399

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ventura P, Morais J, Brito-Mendes C, Kolinsky R (2005) The mental representation of living and nonliving things: differential weighting and interactivity of sensorial and non sensorial features. Memory 13(2):124–147

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vogeley K, Bussfeld P, Newen A, Herrmann S, Happe F, Falkai P, Maier W, Shah NJ, Fink GR, Zilles K (2001) Mind reading: neural mechanisms of theory of mind and self-perspective. Neuroimage 14(1):170–181

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vogeley K, May M, Ritzl A, Falkai P, Zilles K, Fink GR (2004) Neural correlates of first-person perspective as one constituent of human self-consciousness. J Cogn Neurosci 16(5):817–827

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Völlm BA, Taylor ANW, Richardson P, Corcoran R, Stirling J, McKie S, Deakin JFW, Elliott R (2006) Neuronal correlates of theory of mind and empathy: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a nonverbal task. Neuroimage 29:90–98

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walla P (1998) Neurologische Grundlagen von Gedächtnisfunktionen beim Menschen, dissertation. University of Vienna, Austria

    Google Scholar 

  • Walla P, Hufnagl B, Lindinger G, Imhof H, Deecke L, Lang W (2001) Left temporal and temporo-parietal brain activity depends on depth of word encoding: a magnetoencephalographic (MEG) study in healthy young subjects. Neuroimage 13:402–409

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Walla P, Deecke L, Lang W (2005) How chemical information processing interferes with face processing: a magnetoencephalographic (MEG) study. Neuroimage 24(1):111–117

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walla P, Greiner K, Duregger C, Deecke L, Thurner S (2007) Self awareness and the subconscious effect of personal pronouns on word encoding: a magnetoencephalographic (MEG) study. Neuropsychologia 45:796–809

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Warrington EK, McCarthy R (1983) Category specific access dysphasia. Brain 106:859–878

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF project P16022-B02).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Peter Walla

  2. Clinic for Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Peter Walla

  3. ENT Clinic, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18–20, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Peter Walla, Cornelia Duregger, Katharina Greiner & Klaus Ehrenberger

  4. Complex Systems Research Group, HNO, Medical University of Vienna ENT Clinic, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Stefan Thurner

  5. Neuroconsult, Applied Neuroscience Institute, Meiselstrasse 29/2, 1150, Vienna, Austria

    Peter Walla & Cornelia Duregger

Authors
  1. Peter Walla
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cornelia Duregger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Katharina Greiner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Stefan Thurner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Klaus Ehrenberger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Walla.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Walla, P., Duregger, C., Greiner, K. et al. Multiple aspects related to self-awareness and the awareness of others: an electroencephalography study. J Neural Transm 115, 983–992 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-008-0035-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-008-0035-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation