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Authors & Affiliations
Merve Alokten, Lutfu Hanoglu
Abstract
Recently, the self has become an important focus of conscious mind research. Neuroimaging studies reveal that the self emerges from the spontaneous activity of cortical midline structures (CMS). Prefrontal cortex structures are also mentioned prominently in consciousness theories such as higher-order and global workspace theories. This preliminary study aims to observe changes in frontal hemodynamics in response to self-related and non-self-related stimuli. The study included five healthy voluntary participants (mean age=25.6±5.986). Auditory stimuli containing the subject's own name (SON) were used with or without familiar voices. Each participant listened to 8 non-related names in a female voice (S0), SON with the same voice (S1), and SON with their mother's voice (S2) at random with their eyes closed. Frontal cortical hemodynamic responses were recorded via 15 functional near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS) channels (Figure 1). In Channels 6, 8, 9, and 14, oxyhemoglobin (HbO) consumptions were significantly higher in S2 than in S0; in Channel 7, HbO consumption was significantly higher in S1 than in S0 (p=0.034, p=0.034, p=0.034, p=0.013, p=0.013 respectively). Furthermore, in Channel 14, deoxyhemoglobin levels were found to be significantly higher in S2 than in S0 (p=0.013). This preliminary study found that brain oxygenation dynamics change in the mid-prefrontal areas in response to auditory self-related stimuli. It was observed that the frontal components of the CMS associated with the self overlapped with the regions where significant changes have occurred in this study. In conclusion, it is thought that more fNIRS studies are required to investigate the self and consciousness.