Speculations on the emergence of self-awareness in big-brained organisms

TL;DR

This paper proposes that self-awareness emerges through associative learning and memory in complex brains, forming an organismal self-image that underpins behaviors like self-recognition and existential thought.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanistic model linking associative memory, self-image, and language to the emergence of self-awareness in organisms with complex brains.

Findings

Self-awareness arises from associative learning and memory.

Organismal self-image is formed through reinforced neural pathways.

Language enhances self-awareness and related behaviors.

Abstract

This paper argues that self-awareness is a learned behavior that emerges in organisms whose brains have a sufficiently integrated, complex ability for associative learning and memory. Continual sensory input of information related to the organism causes the organism's brain to learn the physical characteristics of the organism, in the sense that neural pathways are produced that are reinforced by, and therefore recognize, various features associated with the organism. This results in the formation of a set of associations that may be termed an organismal self-image, which provides a mechanistic basis for the emergence of various behaviors that are associated with self-awareness, such as self-recognition. In humans, self-awareness includes additional behaviors such as recognition of self-awareness, the concept of I, and various existential and religious questions. This paper shows how associative memory and learning, combined with an organismal self-image and, in the case of humans, language, leads to the emergence of these various behaviors. This paper also discusses various tautologies that invariably emerge when discussing self-awareness, that ultimately prevent an unambiguous resolution to the various existential issues that arise. We continue with various speculations on manipulating self-awareness, and discuss how concepts from set and logic may provide a highly useful set of tools in computational neuroscience for understanding the emergence of higher cognitive functions in complex organisms. The existence of other types of awareness, and the role of mirror neurons in the emergence of self-awareness, are also briefly discussed.