Finding the Self in the Brain: Why the Body Matters for Mind (In-person)

About this event

This event takes place on our Cambridge campus. You can also join us virtually.

What are you and how did your brain create you? Although everyone has (and is) a self, it is not easy to explain how selves came to arise in the world. Most people associate self with personality and identity, but what lies at its core – what is its deep biological basis?

In this talk, Prof. Jane Aspell will share insights from 20 years of research into this question. She will argue that the self is grounded in the brain’s model of the body: that the physical self is the foundation for the mental self. Jane will discuss how disturbed interactions between the body and brain give rise to disorders of self including some types of chronic pain and out of body experiences, and she will show how these can be investigated using virtual reality body illusions. Her previous studies collectively demonstrate that the primary level of self - the bodily self – relies on the brain’s integration of multisensory signals from the external and internal body. She is currently exploring how these basic multisensory processes interact with autobiographical memory to give rise to ‘higher’ levels of self, such as personal identity.

Join us for the talk from 6pm and a free drinks reception from 7pm.

About our speaker

Jane Aspell is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Anglia Ruskin University, where she leads the Self and Body Lab. Prior to working at ARU, Jane did postdoctoral research at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, at Goldsmiths College in London, and at the University of Oxford. She completed her Medical Research Council-funded PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Newcastle, and for her undergraduate studies, she read Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford.

Her program of research spans investigations into the bodily bases of self in neurotypical and autistic people, and in people living with chronic pain and depersonalization. Her lab also investigates how the brain’s processing of internal body signals – interoception – differs in autism and in some types of chronic pain, and how it has an important role in body image and many other aspects of cognition. Jane’s research has been funded by Versus Arthritis, the Bial Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Urology Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy.

Jane has held roles in international societies including the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and the Body Representation Network. She is a member of one of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council committees, and she sits on the Pool of Experts for Versus Arthritis. Jane’s research findings have received international media attention and been covered by outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Times, New Scientist magazine, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Science Focus. Jane is passionate about public engagement with science: she regularly gives talks at events such as the British Science Festival and the Cambridge Festival, and she was recently invited to speak at a New Scientist ‘Masterclass on Consciousness’ Event. Jane is currently writing a popular science book about the brain bases of self for Harvard University Press.