Self Comes to Mind is a book written by Dr. Antonio Damasio, professor of neuroscience at USC. This post has some notes from the book featuring the results of some of the studies cited in the book.
• Neuroimaging studies show that certain patterns of activity in human sensory cortices correspond to a certain class of object.
• The superior colliculus is the only known brain region outside the cerebral cortex that exhibits gamma-range oscillations.
• A study found that separate regions of the visual cortex involved in processing the same object exhibited synchronized activity in the 40 Hz range.
• A study found that the brains of monkeys responded to seeing investigators move in a way as if the monkeys were themselves moving.
• Studies using magnetoencephalography and functional neuroimaging show that the somatomotor complex and the insular cortex can hold a map of the body state, a sensory role, and participate in an action.
• A study found that five hundred milliseconds passed from the moment stimuli were processed in the visual cortices to the moment subjects first reported feelings.
• A study found that the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and upper-brain-stem regions were involved in feeling admiration and compassion – the same regions that are involved in more basic emotions.
• A study that involved subjects remembering something they heard before detected patterns in the auditory cortex, without any actual sound being heard.
• Neuroimaging research has been able to estimate the size of an object that subjects are thinking about.
• Brain imaging of a woman in a vegetative state showed that the cerebral cortices exhibited normal activity when she was asked to imagine walking through her home.
• Out of body experiences can be created in the lab.
• A study involving diffusion spectrum imaging identified connectional hubs throughout the cerebral cortex.
• Neuroimaging studies in anesthesiology show that decreases in the level of consciousness are correlated with the decrease of regional blood flow in the posteromedial cortices.
• In coma and vegetative states, there is a reduction of the local metabolic rate for glucose at the posteromedial cortices.
• Patients who recover from a coma exhibit improvements in brain metabolism at the posteromedial cortices.
