自我及其时间

The Self and Its Time

自我是人们精神生活的核心特征。神经科学对于自我神经关联物(neural correlates of self)的研究发现,在空间上,皮层中线结构(cortical midline structure,CMS)对自我信息加工具有重要意义,特别是皮层中线结构的自发活动。这引出了“静息-自我重叠”(rest-self overlap)和“静息-自我包含”(rest-self containment)的概念。那么,自我是如何通过自发活动编码的呢?其时间特性如何呢?最近的实证研究表明,较慢与较快频率之间的能量平衡与自我直接相关。较慢频率中的较强能量(相对于较快频率中的能量而言)直接与较强的自我相关(例如,自我意识),而较慢频率中的能量较弱则相反。在更概念化的层面上,这使我们提出一种自我的内在时间属性,以与哲学和心理学/神经科学中不受时间影响的和非时间性的定义相区别。因此我们得出结论,我们的自我本质上是时间性的——自我可以追溯到大脑的内在时间,随着时间变化和连续性的共同发生可作为大脑时间和自我时间的“通用货币”(common currency)。

The self is a feature central to our mental life. Neuroscience investigates the neural correlates of self,which spatially show the cortical midline structure of central importance and especially its spontaneous activity. That leads to the concepts of rest-self overlap and rest-self containment,raising the question how and in what ways the self is encoded in the spontaneous activity and its inner time. Recent empirical studies show that the balance in power between slower and faster frequencies is directly related to the self.Relatively stronger power in the slower frequencies( compared to power in faster frequencies) indexes a stronger self,e. g.,self-consciousness,than the opposite with relatively less power in the slower frequencies. On a more conceptual level,this leads us to suggest an intrinsically temporal determination of self which must be distinguished from a-temporal and non-temporal definitions alike as in philosophy and psychology/neuroscience. I thus conclude that our self is intrinsically temporal--the self can be traced to the brain’s inner time with its co-occurrence of temporal change and continuity serving as "common currency" between brain time and self time.