Electrospection Of Myself In A Chimpanzees And A Mirror

Superior Essays
Recognizing oneself seems like a simple task, but when under examination it becomes more difficult than presumed. There are varieties of ways one can interpret themselves. It can be as easy as the face is seen in the mirror, the traits one encompasses, or the brain that is responsible for it all. Is this self-capable of change, or is it at a fixed state? An episode from radio lab called “Who am I?” discusses several of these possible selves. In doing so it will create an introspection of my own interpretation on who I am.
The primary study discussed involves chimpanzees and a mirror. The purpose of this study was to investigate where the self is located, and if it begins with the recognition of our features through a mirror. Gordon Gala, Dr. Julian Keenan’s mentor found that the chimpanzees would initially believe that the mirror was a different chimpanzee and would begin beating its chest, banging on the mirror, and eventually rubbing its behind on the mirror. Therefore, Gordon decided that he would give the chimpanzees Anesthesia so he can put a red mark on their head. When the chimpanzees woke up, they began to look at the mirror and touch themselves on the head where the red mark was, wipe it and smell it. This shows that the chimpanzees then recognized themselves in the mirror. The recognition
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Julian Keenan had this same question so he had begun a study that involved a more well-designed self-recognition test. He did this by morphing his patients face with Bill Clintons in a picture. He found that every one of them saw more of themselves than they did Bill Clinton. He then gave the patients a type of anesthesia that would put their right brain to sleep, which resulted in the patients seeing more of Bill Clinton in the images than themselves. He then concluded that self-recognition resides somewhere in the right part of the brain. This then leads to the question, if trauma were to occur in the right part of the brain, would we lose our

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