Neuroscience and Self in Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Abstract

Although the role of the DMN in understanding self has not reached scientific consensus, a consideration of the DMN and the results of its dysfunction may stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue in at least two ways related to questions of selves. First, given the ongoing discussion about the proper interpretation of DMN data, this area may benefit from non-empirical, interdisciplinary contributions toward understanding selves. Second, the centrality of the DMN to selves suggests a healthy DMN is necessary (though not sufficient) for a healthy self. Practices for healthy DMN functioning can contribute to and be enriched by philosophical and theological perspectives about telos and Christian practice.*Notes *1Marc Cortez, Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed (London, UK: T&T Clark, 2010). *2Erin I. Smith, "A Tale of Two Perspectives: How Psychology and Neuroscience Contribute to Understanding Personhood," Scientia et Fides 9, no. 2 (2021): article 2, https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2021.017. *3 Georg Northoff, "Is the Self a Higher-Order or Fundamental Function of the Brain? The 'Basis Model of Self-Specificity' and Its Encoding by the Brain's Spontaneous Activity," Cognitive Neuroscience 7 (2016): 203–22, https://doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2015.1111868.