Self-recognition, theory-of-mind, and self-awareness: What side are you on?

Abstract

A fashionable view in comparative psychology states that primates possess self-awareness because they exhibit mirror self-recognition (MSR), which in turn makes it possible to infer mental states in others (“theory-of-mind”; ToM). In cognitive neuroscience, an increasingly popular position holds that the right hemisphere represents the centre of self-awareness because MSR and ToM tasks presumably increase activity in that hemisphere. These two claims are critically assessed here as follows: (1) MSR should not be equated with full-blown self-awareness, as it most probably only requires kinaesthetic self-knowledge and does not involve access to one's mental events; (2) ToM and self-awareness are fairly independent and should also not be taken as equivalent notions; (3) MSR and ToM tasks engage medial and left brain areas; (4) other self-awareness tasks besides MSR and ToM tasks (e.g., self-description, autobiography) mostly recruit medial and left brain areas; (5) and recent neuropsychological evidence implies that inner speech (produced by the left hemisphere) plays a significant role in self-referential activity. The main conclusions reached based on this analysis are that (a) organisms that display MSR most probably do not possess introspective self-awareness, and (b) self-related processes most likely engage a distributed network of brain regions situated in both hemispheres.

Keywords:

• Self-awareness
• Self-recognition
• Theory-of-mind
• Right hemisphere
• Inner speech

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a talk presented at the conference The Minds of Animals held in Toronto (Ontario) on 12–13 August 2008. I would like to thank Petra Kamstra and Cass Foursha-Stevenson for their helpful editorial comments on previous versions of this manuscript.

Notes

¹This view is based on Gallup's and Keenan's extensive research on self-recognition and self-awareness; in Gallup's case it spans over more than 40 years. Providing the reader with an exhaustive list of their published work is unrealistic. The reader can find below a list of their most important articles and book chapters.

Gordon G. Gallup Jr. and his team: Gallup, 1968, 1970, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1997; Gallup et al., 2002; Platek et al., 2003, 2004b; Stuss et al., 2001; Suarez & Gallup, 1981.

Julian Paul Keenan and his team: Barnacz et al., 2004; Guise et al., 2007; Keenan et al., 1999, 2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2003, 2005; Keenan & Gorman, 2007; Platek et al., 2004a; Rosa et al., 2008; Seger et al., 2004; Uddin et al., 2007.