MRI used to locate sense of introspection
12 Nov 2010 by Evoluted New Media
What makes us human is the ability to reflect on our own thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but some people are better at it than others, and scientists think they know why – it’s all down to a small area at the front of the brain.
What makes us human is the ability to reflect on our own thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but some people are better at it than others, and scientists think they know why – it’s all down to a small area at the front of the brain.
Measuring the biological basis of introspection has proved challenging as there are no outward indicators for introspective thought but scientists from University College London devised an experiment that provides an objective measure of a person’s performance at a task and how well they could judge their own performance.
Thirty-two volunteers were shown two screens each containing six patches. They had to identify which screen had the brightest patch and were asked to rate how confident they were about their decision before being told if they were correct.
“We made this task difficult so that people could never be sure about whether their answer was correct,” said Dr Rimona Weil, adding that those good at introspection will be confident in their answer if they know they’re correct, but less confident when they’re not sure if they’re right or wrong.
“It’s like Who wants to be a Millionaire? – a good contestant will go with their answer when they’re sure and phone a friend if unsure,” Weil said, “But a poor contestant might not be as good as judging how likely they are to be correct.”
The study showed that although all volunteers performed equally well at the task, individual introspective ability differed substantially. Researchers studied the structure of volunteers’ brains using MRI scanning, looking for parts of the brain that correlated with introspective ability.
“We found a correlation between introspective ability and the structure of a small area of prefrontal cortex near the front of the brain,” said Professor Geraint Rees, “The better the person was at introspection, the more grey matter they had in this area.”
Researchers believe their finding may help them understand why and how brain damage affects a person’s ability to reflect on their thoughts and to develop appropriate interventions.
“If we can understand self-awareness at the neurological level, then perhaps we can adapt treatments and develop training strategies for these patients,” said Steve Flemming.
