Trait-like stability of selfhood triumvirate and its constituent aspects: A qEEG intra-individual test-retest reliability study.
Alexander A Fingelkurts, Andrew A Fingelkurts
Consciousness and cognition March 1, 2026 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2026.104004 via PubMed
Summary
The three core aspects of selfhood—'Self', 'Me', and 'I'—show moderate-to-high stability when measured repeatedly in the same individuals using brain activity patterns. Their overall configuration is exceptionally stable. This stability did not change with time between tests, age, or the presence of physical or mental health conditions. The findings suggest these aspects of selfhood function like stable traits.
Study at a glance
| Design | test-retest reliability study |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The 'Self', 'Me', and 'I' aspects of the Selfhood triumvirate and their overall functional configuration exhibit trait-like stability across time, age, and normative versus pathological conditions. |
Abstract
This study investigated the intraindividual stability and reliability of the three core aspects of the Selfhood triumvirate ('Self', 'Me', and 'I') as well as their mutual relationship (the Selfhood triumvirate configuration/pattern) by measuring the within-subjects reproducibility of functional integrity within three operational modules (OMs) of the brain's self-referential network (SRN), each associated with one of these aspects, upon repeat testing (test-retest reliability). Our findings revealed statistically robust, moderate-to-high intraindividual test-retest reliability for the individual aspects ('Self', 'Me', and 'I'), and exceptionally high reliability for their overall functional configuration (i.e., the relative proportion of expression among the three aspects). Importantly, the analyses did not provide evidence that the duration between assessments, participants' age, or the presence of somatic or psychopathological conditions moderated these reliability measures. Taken together, the results suggest that the 'Self', 'Me', and 'I' aspects of the Selfhood triumvirate, as well as their overall functional configuration, exhibit trait-like properties, albeit to varying degrees, measured as the stability of functional integrity within the corresponding SRN OMs across time, age, and normative versus pathological conditions. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are discussed.