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The ‘I’ and the ‘Me’ in self-referential awareness: a neurocognitive hypothesis

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Abstract

The nature of the ‘self’ and self-referential awareness has been one of the most debated issues in philosophy, psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Understanding the neurocognitive bases of self-related representation and processing is also crucial to research on the neural correlates of consciousness. The distinction between an ‘I’, corresponding to a subjective sense of the self as a thinker and causal agent, and a ‘Me’, as the objective sense of the self with the unique and identifiable features constituting one’s self-image or self-concept, suggested by William James, has been re-elaborated by authors from different theoretical perspectives. In this article, empirical studies and theories about the ‘I’ and the ‘Me’ in cognition and self-related awareness are reviewed, including the relationships between self and perception, self and memory, the development of the self, self-referential stimulus processing, as well as related neuroimaging studies. Subsequently, the relations between self and different aspects of consciousness are considered. On the basis of the reviewed literature and with reference to Block’s distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness, a neurocognitive hypothesis is formulated about ‘I’-related and ‘Me’-related self-referential awareness. This hypothesis is extended to metacognitive awareness and a form of non-transitive consciousness, characteristic of meditation experiences and studies, with particular reference to the notion of mindfulness and other Buddhist constructs.

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Notes

  1. Various authors have argued that the self or aspects of the self emerge previously to the explicit self-recognition in the mirror and that this particular task only taps for an understanding of mirror functioning (see for example Neisser 1988).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Gezinus Wolters and Prof. Narayanan Srinivasan for their helpful and insightful comments and suggestions to improve this article.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Angela Tagini

  2. Department of Psychology, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Antonino Raffone

  3. Perceptual Dynamics Laboratory, Brain Science Institute RIKEN, Saitama, Japan

    Antonino Raffone

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  1. Angela Tagini
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Correspondence to Angela Tagini.

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Tagini, A., Raffone, A. The ‘I’ and the ‘Me’ in self-referential awareness: a neurocognitive hypothesis. Cogn Process 11, 9–20 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-009-0336-1

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