How our Brain Shapes our Sense of Self

What I had comprehended regarding how our brain shapes our sense of self, is that
our sense of self refers to our self-perception or consciousness. wherein there is a
small structure located in our brain that is incharge of our perception called Anterior
Precuneus in short aPCu, this small structure leads a regions of brain system to
function simultaneously forming a networks which connects and integrates bodily
information that creates our self-awareness.

Anterior Precuneus is a medial, parietal, and cortical region located somewhere in a

parietal lobe that explains some of the main functions of aPCu such as providing
access of information to hippocampus, learning, emotions, memory, visual-spatial
imagery, episodic memory retrieval and self-processing or first person perspective
taking an experience, as well as the gestalt integration of information relating to
perception of the environment. It was mentioned that there are two sides of our sense
of self the “I” and “Me” which I represents our physical self refers to our physical
existence that we take in action while Me is narrative self this involves emotions,
thoughts, future, and our past experience. These separate networks were controlled by
various region that frequently interact with each other.

Upon the conducted research of Stanford they had use advance brain imaging and
electric impulses to observe brain activity. According to PhD. Jocef Parvizi during the
experimental disruption of aPCu activity in brain. There are people underwent
through testing wherein their brain the right and left hemisphere were electrically
stimulated as a result most of those people feel the depolarization, some feels like
they are floating and the rest are falling, they still feel they are inside their body only
their sense of their location and orientation had changed. which it seems whether the
world was unreal or they were in alternate reality. There are contradicting effects
between both hemisphere if the right side is stimulated a person may accompanied by
the positive emotions associated with floating while the left causes negative emotions
associated with falling sensation.

The only possible explanation why it results an opposite emotional effects was our
past experience, and memory that we store is to our left hemisphere represents Me for
instance a bad experiences projected a negativity in our perceptive reality. While right
represents the I is the future what we have not yet experience projects a positive shift
in our perceptive reality. To connect this with Rene Descartes Cogito Ergo Sum “ I
Think’ Therefore I am” or I think ‘ Therefore I exist. Rene implies that our sense of
self is our body and mind there may be separated but we are accompanied by these to
be aware of our surroundings or environment. With the help of our senses such as
taste, touch, sights, hearing, and smell the fact the we are receiving a sensory
information from external reality towards our sensory memory these senses enable us
to think, interpret and understand which only proves that we exist in this external
world.