COGS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Supplementary Motor Area, Anorexia Nervosa, Somatoparaphrenia
18 May 2018
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DISORDERS OF THE SELF
DISORDERS OF THE SELF
• All have ideas of it, but a difficult question to answer specifically.
• Philosophers argue on how to best understand this.
• Self as an entity that is distinct from everything else in environment.
• Two key aspects:
o Experience of influencing the world (sense of agency);
o Experience of having a distinct physical body (sense of body ownership)
Our sense of self can be disturbed in many cognitive disorders:
• Schizophrenia,
• Alien hand syndrome,
• Somatoparaphrenia,
• Phantom limbs,
• Anorexia nervosa,
• Out of body experiences.
NORMAL AGENCY
What happens when you lift up your arm? The feeling of causing that event to occur is what we call
our sense of agency.
• We notice when it is disturbed.
RITUAL
Some religious rituals involve states of trance and possession.
Triggered by range of stimuli:
• Music, chanting, dancing, fasting, psychotropics.
Subjective experience of control by an external entity.
HYNOSIS
High hypnotisable participants frequently describe their actions as occurring without conscious
intention.
• Classic suggestion effect.
• It was my arm that moved, but I didn't feel like I made it happen.
Hypnosis leads to a change in self-monitoring so that self-generated actions are experienced as if
they were externally caused.
ANARCHIC HAND SYNDROME
• A patient's arm makes coordinated, seemingly purposeful actions without conscious
intentions.
• Very rare (only approximately 40 reported cases).
• Results from neurological damage to the supplementary motor area.
• Motor movements triggered by external stimuli without inhibition.
DELUSIONS OF CONTROL
Feeling that actions, thoughts or emotions are caused by an external entity:
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Our sense of self can be disturbed in many cognitive disorders: schizophrenia, alien hand syndrome, somatoparaphrenia, phantom limbs, anorexia nervosa, out of body experiences. The feeling of causing that event to occur is what we call our sense of agency: we notice when it is disturbed. Some religious rituals involve states of trance and possession. Triggered by range of stimuli: music, chanting, dancing, fasting, psychotropics. Subjective experience of control by an external entity. High hypnotisable participants frequently describe their actions as occurring without conscious intention: classic suggestion effect. It was my arm that moved, but i didn"t feel like i made it happen. Hypnosis leads to a change in self-monitoring so that self-generated actions are experienced as if they were externally caused. Anarchic hand syndrome: a patient"s arm makes coordinated, seemingly purposeful actions without conscious intentions, very rare (only approximately 40 reported cases), results from neurological damage to the supplementary motor area, motor movements triggered by external stimuli without inhibition.
