http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/09/17/introspection-brain-region.html
 Brain region linked to introspection
Last Updated: Friday, September 17, 2010 | 10:30 AM ET
Comments0Recommend2The Associated Press 
Scans show areas of the of brain linked with introspective accuracy.
(Science/AAAS) 
People who seem particularly introspective tend to have a part of their
brain that is larger, researchers have found.

Introspective people know their minds better than others - for example, in
being confident that they made the right decision.

Research reported Friday is a step toward understanding the biology behind
that important part of human consciousness. It's work necessary for one day
tackling brain injuries or diseases that rob people of key aspects of
self-reflection - such as schizophrenia patients who aren't aware that
they're ill and thus don't take their medication. 

Introspection is basically thinking about your thinking, a way to judge your
own thoughts and actions - and inherently difficult to study.

By learning the neurological basis of self-awareness, "might we be able to
come up with potential strategies to intervene in these cases and improve
people's introspective ability?" asks Stephen Fleming of University College
London, lead author of the new research published in the journal Science.

The British research team devised a way to measure introspective ability by
comparing people's confidence in a decision they made with the accuracy of
that decision.

Here's how it worked: Researchers briefly showed 32 healthy people computer
screens containing patterns, one slightly brighter than the rest, similar to
tests used in eye exams. First, the volunteers had to rapidly choose which
screen contained the brighter pattern. 

'Understanding how the brain works is important in its own right.'
- Hakwan LauBecause some people are simply better observers, the computer
adjusted the level of difficulty to each individual so that the task was
equally hard for everyone and no one could be completely sure their answer
was correct.

Then the volunteers had to rate how confident they were in their answer.

The idea was that people with good introspective abilities would be more
confident when they were right, and more likely to second-guess themselves
when they really were wrong. People who are just brash and overconfident
might lead an outsider to think they were right, but in reality wouldn't
show that correlation.

Focus on grey matter
Brain scans showed people's introspective ability was strongly linked to the
amount of grey matter in a spot of the prefrontal cortex, right behind the
eyes, the researchers reported.

In addition, the study found people who were more introspective also had
stronger functioning white matter in that part of the brain - the nerve
fibres that act as a telephone system to allow cells to communicate with
others.

Bolstering the findings, previous studies show schizophrenia is associated
with poor prefrontal cortex functioning, and that strokes in that area can
rob people of introspective ability, Fleming said.

Much more research is needed, however, to address the which-came-first
question: are these brain differences innate? Or do they reflect this brain
region getting stronger as people try to spend more time monitoring their
own mental state, meaning it's an ability that might be improved with
training?

Regardless, much brain research to date has focused on simpler questions,
like how memory is formed. The new findings help shed light on more
sophisticated, higher-level abilities, said Columbia University psychology
researcher Hakwan Lau, who wasn't involved in the research but analyzed it
in an accompanying article in Science.

"Understanding how the brain works is important in its own right," said Lau.

C The Canadian Press, 2010


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