TED Talks Daily How your brain invents your “self” | Anil Seth
Nov 10, 2021
Anil Seth, a leading neuroscientist renowned for his insights into consciousness, discusses his groundbreaking theory of the self. He explains how our brain creates the feeling of self through sensory experiences, likening it to a controlled hallucination. The conversation dives into perception and reality, questioning the existence of a unified self. Seth also examines the role of memory in shaping identity and reveals how our brain predicts and updates our understanding of the world, profoundly affecting our self-awareness.
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Perceived Reality
- We predict the world into existence, creating our reality.
- Our perceptions, like the color red, are brain-based best guesses, not direct reflections of reality.
Controlled Hallucination
- Sensory signals are ambiguous; the brain infers their causes.
- Perception is an active construction, a 'controlled hallucination' tied to reality by usefulness.
The Self as Hallucination
- Experiencing selfhood is a controlled hallucination focused on body regulation.
- Selfhood comprises interconnected parts: identity, free will, perspective, embodiment, and being alive.