Date of Award

5-2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Psychology

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Julian P. Keenan

Committee Member

Paul Amrheim

Committee Member

Cigdem Talgar

Abstract

Only by understanding the uniquely human ability to take a first- second- and third-person perspective, can we begin to elucidate the neural processes responsible for one’s inimitable conscious experience. The current study examined differences in hemispheric laterality during a first-person perspective (1PP) and third-person perspective (3PP) taking task, using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). Subjects were asked to take either the 1PP or 3PP in identifying the number of spheres in a virtual scene. During this task, single- pulse TMS was delivered to the motor cortex of both the left and right hemispheres of 10 healthy volunteers. Measures of TMS-induced motor-evoked potentials (MEP’s) of the contralateral abductor pollicus brevis (APB) were used as an indicator of lateralized cortical activation. The data suggest that the right hemisphere is an integral component for discriminating between 1PP and 3PP and that the link between the primary- representational “self” (1PP) and the meta- representational state of 3PP may lie within the LH.

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