How introspection evolved in apes

Ramachandran

The seven aspects of self that Ramachandran elucidates in "Ape with a Soul" include self-awareness or self-consciousness, which is the "the most important puzzling aspect of self," (p. 279). Gender is another aspect of self, and so are free will, a sense of worth, dignity, mortality and morality.

In Chapter 9, "Ape with a Soul," V.S. Ramachandran examines the evolution of introspection as a uniquely human cognitive feature. The chapter begins with an anecdote about Jason Murdoch, who developed a rare case of what is known as telephone syndrome after a car accident. Ramachandran describes Jason Murdoch's state as being "two Jasons inside of one body," ((p. 245-246). Telephone syndrome highlights the segregation of the visual and auditory pathways in the brain, up until the anterior cingulate.

According to Ramachandran, the anterior cingulate is a "collar of tissue…where your sense of free will originates," (p. 246). When the anterior cingulate is extensively or thoroughly damaged, the patient develops akinetic mutism and is zombie-like regardless of whether or not a person is in the room. However, in Jason's case only the part where visual pathways originate experienced damage. Jason could communicate fine with his father on the phone but not in person. Although Jason's sensory system was intact in terms of the patient being able to see and process visual data, he could not infer meaning from what he was seeing. Ramachandran refers to that meaning as "metarepresentations" to signify the gestalt we create that forms our consciousness, our uniqueness, and our personal identity.

Metarepresentations are a second- or higher-order brain function that ascribes symbolic and other meanings onto mere sensory input. Instead of viewing the world as an animal would, human beings perceive things in a direct and in an abstract way. This is one of the reasons why human beings are capable of the symbolic thought that language entails.

The metarepresentations are also "a prerequisite for our values, beliefs, and priorities," (Ramachandran 2011, p. 247). When a human being makes a moral judgment about something, that judgement is not necessarily based on direct sensory input but on a whole range of symbolic and abstract decisions related to socialization and individual differences.

Ramachandran explains the discrepancy or paradox in Jason's inability to transfer his ability to process the auditory information separately when his father is in the room to the tendency for human beings to favor visual information over audio. Regardless, Jason has what Ramachandran calls a "fragmented self," (p. 247). The phenomenon begs inquiry into the scientific definition of self, and whether self is merely a collection of fragments.