Re-cognizing the new self: The neurocognitive plasticity of self-processing following facial transplantation

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 10 authors, 4 centres

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TL;DR

This longitudinal case study used behavioral tasks and neuroimaging to track self-face recognition in a single patient before and after a facial transplant.

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This study employed a longitudinal design to investigate the neurocognitive plasticity of self-face recognition following partial facial transplantation.

STUDY TYPE

case_report

SPECIALTY

neurology

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ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10083597

Re-cognizing the new self: The neurocognitive plasticity of self-processing following facial transplantation

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

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ABSTRACT

Significance Recognition of one’s own face is a hallmark of self-awareness. Our face changes as we age, but these transformations do not necessarily alter our self-identity. But what happens when the face is altered or replaced through facial transplantation? We present the first longitudinal investigation of changes in self-face recognition throughout a patient’s journey before a life-changing injury, during the injury, and after facial transplantation. Neurobehavioral measures show how he preserves a strong mental and neural representation of his pre-injury appearance and gradually incorporates the new post-transplant appearance into his self-identity. These changes and underlying neural processes highlight how the malleable representations of our face ensure the self’s continuity over time. Keywords: self-recognition, face, facial transplantation, self identity

CITATION EXPORT

Ruben T Azevedo, J Rodrigo Diaz-Siso, Allyson R Alfonso et al.. Re-cognizing the new self: The neurocognitive plasticity of self-processing following facial transplantation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211966120

AUTHORS

10 · 4 CENTRES

Ruben T Azevedo, J Rodrigo Diaz-Siso, Allyson R Alfonso, Elie P Ramly, Rami S Kantar, Zoe P Berman, Gustave K Diep, William J Rifkin, Eduardo D Rodriguez, Manos Tsakiris

aDepartment of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NP, UK
bHansjörg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY 10016
cDepartment of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK
dThe Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, London WC1H 0AB, UK

Ruben T Azevedo, J Rodrigo Diaz-Siso, Allyson R Alfonso et al.. Re-cognizing the new self: The neurocognitive plasticity of self-processing following facial transplantation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211966120