Neuronal self

Self-concept is our idea of who we are as individuals. This complex mental construct helps us make sense of the world and function as social beings. However, when self-beliefs become negative or rigid, they are linked to low motivation and depression.

Despite its importance for mental health, we still don’t know how neurons in the human brain store and process beliefs about the self.

This EU-funded project, supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, aims to uncover the brain mechanisms behind self-concept for the first time. We use advanced single-neuron recording techniques in people who have depth electrodes implanted for epilepsy diagnosis.

The project is a collaboration between the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the United States.

Intracranial recordings

(A) Electrodes used for intracranial recordings. The intracranial EEG (iEEG) contacts are used to localize the epileptic activity, whereas local field potentials (LFPs) and extracellular spiking activity are recorded from the microwires protruding from the electrode tip. The spikes from neurons that are close to the electrode tip can be separated via spike sorting algorithms (see further); neurons further away from the tip can be detected but not sorted, thus generating the multiunit activity; neurons that are even more distant contribute to the background noise. (B) Computed tomography (CT) and (C) CT fused with MRI showing one of the electrodes implanted in the medial temporal lobe. Adapted from Quian Quiroga, Cell, 2019.