An evolutionary account of impairment of self in cognitive disorders.
Cognitive processing February 1, 2023 Antonio Benítez-burraco, Ines Adornetti, Francesco Ferretti et al. 13 citations
Atypical functioning of cortico-striatal brain networks that support cross-modality—a key human cognitive ability—may underlie altered processing of the self in schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, and synesthesia. This disruption affects both the minimal self and the narrative self. The authors link these cognitive conditions to an atypical presentation of human self-domestication features, building on prior work connecting cognitive disorders and language evolution. This framework unifies linguistic and non-linguistic symptoms through deficits in the notion of self, supports the hypothesis that schizophrenia and autism are diametrically opposed conditions, and suggests that their origins are tied to recent human evolution, offering cues for earlier and more accurate diagnosis.