In Search of Self
In Search of Self
May 10, 2001 -- Let's say your father is strict, even puritanical when it comes to lifestyle, work ethic, shouldering responsibility, and sexual fidelity. Then he becomes a swinger, squandering time and money, blaming others for his mistakes, letting it all hang out, and even egging you on to do the same.
What could cause such a dramatic change in his self-image?
Not a midlife crisis, or a sudden change of heart, but a disease involving a specific brain region. That area of the brain -- the right frontal lobe -- holds the key to sense of self, according to research presented yesterday by Bruce L. Miller, MD, at the American Academy of Neurology's 53rd Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
"Sense of self is a crucial concept that helps us identify who we are in the larger world," Murray Grossman, MD, associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, tells WebMD when asked to comment on the research. "Miller's work emphasizes that this is not an abstract concept."
Instead, sense of self has a basis in our brains, Grossman explains, as Miller showed by using X-ray studies in patients who had a complete reversal of self-image.
The prodigal father just described was one of Miller's patients with frontotemporal dementia, a rare form of progressive memory loss caused by slow death of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain -- the regions of the brain closest to the forehead and temples.
"Loss of brain cells in this disease occurs relatively slowly, so that changes in the self can be studied," says Miller, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. "Since frontotemporal dementia may affect relatively limited areas on one side of the brain, we can study the effect of damage in specific brain regions."
"Frontotemporal dementia presents a unique opportunity for the investigation of this fascinating but complex topic -- sense of self," agrees John Hodges, MD, PhD, a professor of behavioral neurology at the University of Cambridge in England, who reviewed the findings for WebMD. "This is a very interesting study by a world-renowned research group."
In Search of Self
May 10, 2001 -- Let's say your father is strict, even puritanical when it comes to lifestyle, work ethic, shouldering responsibility, and sexual fidelity. Then he becomes a swinger, squandering time and money, blaming others for his mistakes, letting it all hang out, and even egging you on to do the same.
What could cause such a dramatic change in his self-image?
Not a midlife crisis, or a sudden change of heart, but a disease involving a specific brain region. That area of the brain -- the right frontal lobe -- holds the key to sense of self, according to research presented yesterday by Bruce L. Miller, MD, at the American Academy of Neurology's 53rd Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
"Sense of self is a crucial concept that helps us identify who we are in the larger world," Murray Grossman, MD, associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, tells WebMD when asked to comment on the research. "Miller's work emphasizes that this is not an abstract concept."
Instead, sense of self has a basis in our brains, Grossman explains, as Miller showed by using X-ray studies in patients who had a complete reversal of self-image.
The prodigal father just described was one of Miller's patients with frontotemporal dementia, a rare form of progressive memory loss caused by slow death of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain -- the regions of the brain closest to the forehead and temples.
"Loss of brain cells in this disease occurs relatively slowly, so that changes in the self can be studied," says Miller, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. "Since frontotemporal dementia may affect relatively limited areas on one side of the brain, we can study the effect of damage in specific brain regions."
"Frontotemporal dementia presents a unique opportunity for the investigation of this fascinating but complex topic -- sense of self," agrees John Hodges, MD, PhD, a professor of behavioral neurology at the University of Cambridge in England, who reviewed the findings for WebMD. "This is a very interesting study by a world-renowned research group."
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