Cicourel Aaron V
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, USA.
Neurocase. 2011 Jun;17(3):251-9. doi: 10.1080/13554794.2010.509321.
Four incontrovertible 'facts' are assumed for human emergence, survival and notion of a self: (1) the existence of neurobiological structures and mechanisms, (2) employment of cognitive problem solving mechanisms, (3) adoption of physiologically based emotional displays, and (4) aquisition of communal socio-culture knowledge through caregiver 'scaffolding' activities and situated practices. The 'self', therefore, is only viable with the simultaneous evolution of neurobiological, cognitive, emotional, and socio-cultural structures and processes. An emergent self presupposes an integration and continual interaction of a developing memory system, continual acquisition and reproduction of cognitive problem solving mechanisms and emotional displays, and acquisition and loss of distributed socio-cultural knowledge. The inability to reproduce coherent local displays of self becomes acutely evident in patients diagnosed with fairly advanced Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and related insults to the brain. Ten minutes of discourse between spouses with diagnoses unknown to the author are used to illustrate linguistic scaffolding provided by caregivers to simulate appropriate socio-cultural interaction; the value of such exchanges for diagnosing human brain dysfunction and loss of self is discussed.
人类的出现、生存以及自我概念基于四个无可争议的“事实”：（1）神经生物学结构和机制的存在；（2）认知问题解决机制的运用；（3）基于生理的情感表达的采用；（4）通过照顾者的“支架”活动和情境实践获取公共社会文化知识。因此，“自我”只有在神经生物学、认知、情感和社会文化结构及过程同时进化的情况下才可行。一个新兴的自我预设了一个不断发展的记忆系统的整合与持续互动、认知问题解决机制和情感表达的持续获取与再现，以及分布式社会文化知识的获取与丧失。在被诊断患有相当晚期的阿尔茨海默病、额颞叶痴呆以及相关脑部损伤的患者中，无法再现连贯的局部自我表现变得极为明显。作者使用一对配偶之间十分钟的对话（作者不知他们的诊断情况）来说明照顾者提供的语言支架，以模拟适当的社会文化互动；讨论了这种交流对于诊断人类脑功能障碍和自我丧失的价值。
