Self and the Brain. The Immune Metaphor.
Silvia Sánchez-Ramón, Florence Faure
Frontiers in Psychiatry September 29, 2020 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.540676 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Neuroplasticity |
| Keywords | Schizophrenia Immune self Autophrenic disease Neurologic self |
| Key points | Proposes that perinatal reactivity to self inputs guides selection of neocortical neurons in the subplate, analogous to T lymphocyte selection in the thymus, enabling discrimination of external inputs and avoidance of autoreactive responses. Argues that schizophrenia is an archetypic autophrenic disease involving rupture of the self. |
Abstract
One of the fundamental questions in neuroscience is how brain activity relates to conscious experience. Even though self-consciousness is considered an emergent property of the brain network, a quantum physics-based theory assigns a momentum of consciousness to the single neuron level. In this work, we present a brain self theory from an evolutionary biological perspective by analogy with the immune self. In this scheme, perinatal reactivity to self inputs would guide the selection of neocortical neurons within the subplate, similarly to T lymphocytes in the thymus. Such self-driven neuronal selection would enable effective discrimination of external inputs and avoid harmful "autoreactive" responses. Multiple experimental and clinical evidences for this model are provided. Based on this self tenet, we outline the postulates of the so-called autophrenic diseases, to then make the case for schizophrenia, an archetypic disease with rupture of the self. Implications of this model are discussed, along with potential experimental verification.
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Citations in the library
Cites 5
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