Dissociating Reflexive Self-Binding from General Neural Complexity: A Perturbational Complexity and Effective Connectivity Study in Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder

Abstract

This paper proposes an experimental framework to test whether reflexive self-binding, the property by which ongoing neural processing is experienced as belonging to a subject, can be dissociated from general neural complexity. Depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPD) serves as a naturally occurring clinical model: perception, cognition, and memory remain largely intact, while the felt ownership of experience is diminished. The central prediction is that individuals with DPD will show comparable general neural complexity, measured via the Perturbational Complexity Index (PCI) derived from TMS-EEG, alongside selectively reduced recurrent self-referential effective connectivity within the cortical midline structures, estimated via Dynamic Causal Modeling of fMRI data. This pattern would differ from what the strong form of Integrated Information Theory predicts. The proposed design compares four groups (DPD, healthy controls, anxiety disorder without depersonalization, and other dissociative disorders), uses a Group × Measure interaction as the primary confirmatory test, and specifies a preregistrable analysis plan, power considerations, and explicit criteria under which the hypothesis would be weakened or falsified. No data have been collected; the paper presents a proposed protocol, not results. It is independent of, and does not presuppose, the physical (gravitational) component of the broader Mirror Hypothesis framework from which it originates.