Anatomy of an Avatar

The self is an avatar—a virtual entity constructed by the brain to coordinate bodily, perceptual, and cognitive processes for achieving the organism's goals, primarily homeostatic maintenance. This book argues that self-awareness is normally subtle, but when neural patterns implementing the avatar degrade, disorders such as Cotard delusion, depersonalization, psychedelic experiences, and pain asymbolia arise. It also contends that conditions like social anxiety and addiction stem from maladaptive activity in the same circuitry, using disorders of self-awareness as a case study to illuminate the avatar's nature and its implications for philosophy and cognitive neuropsychiatry.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract The self is an avatar, a virtual entity, constructed by the brain to play the game of life. To control the organism the mind manipulates the avatar through the world. The avatar co-ordinates bodily, perceptual, sensorimotor, cognitive, and metacognitive processes in pursuit of the organism’s goals, the most basic of which is homeostatic maintenance. Other processes are layered over basic homeostatic ones which provide the ultimate anchor for cognition. The nature of this layering, the way it is anchored by the avatar, and the consequences for philosophy and cognitive neuropsychiatry are the focus of this book. It uses disorders of self awareness as a case study because they throw the nature of the avatar into sharp relief. When avatar is functioning well we are barely aware of it. Self awareness is a subtle and evanescent component of sensory experience. However when the pattern of neural activation that implements the avatar degrades or disappears, the resulting regulatory failure is manifest in a variety of disorders of self awareness. Cotard delusion (‘I no longer exist’), depersonalization experience, psychedelic experience, and pain asymbolia (‘the pain feels as if it belongs to someone else’) are florid examples. However, it turns out that other disorders such as social anxiety and addiction, which are not obviously pathologies of self awareness, also stem from maladaptive patterns of activity in the circuitry that implements the avatar.