(These studies are typically conducted in people who have epilepsy because doctors implant electrodes in the brains of these research volunteers to monitor their brain activity prior to surgery.) Then, in 2018, Parvizi encountered a patient with epilepsy who came to him with an unusual set of symptoms. But when Parvizi and others disrupted brain activity in the PMC by injecting electric currents into the brains of individuals with epilepsy, they failed to alter the physical “I” feeling. So scientists wanted to see whether disrupting brain activity in this region could somehow change a study participant’s physical sense of self. Neuroimaging studies had shown that the PMC was active while people were recalling memories or engaging in the type of mind-wandering that tends to spur self-related thoughts. Of particular interest was a segment of the network known as the posteromedial cortex (PMC), located near the back of the head in the region where the two hemispheres meet. In searching for the “I” in the brain, researchers reasoned that the default mode network would be a logical starting point. “I-ness” is that feeling that you indeed occupy your own body. But as soon as you think of any of these spots, you can feel their presence immediately. Unless you’re in pain, you have no moment-by-moment awareness of your hand, your shin, your big toe or even your body as a whole.

Suppose you’re sitting at the kitchen table or standing waiting for a train. The awareness we have that we inhabit a body (call it an essential “I-ness”) forms a bridge that constantly switches back and forth between a conscious and unconscious state of mind. The “I,” in contrast, has been harder to pin down-at least until very recently. “ has kind of been baptized as the center for the sense of self,” says Josef Parvizi, a neurologist and a professor at Stanford University who researches the self.

This collection of brain areas is active when a person is not focused on a task, and researchers have found that it plays an important role in processing self-referential thoughts.

The default-mode network, a term coined by neurologist Marcus Raichle in 2001, has emerged as a key player in the “me” aspect of the self. Neuroscientists equipped with high-tech tool kits have begun to achieve some success in the long-running search to find the brain areas responsible for creating these two aspects of the self. The first was an “I” that physically perceives and experiences the world, and the second was a “me” that encompasses a mental narrative about oneself, based on one’s past experiences.

The 19th-century philosopher William James proposed that the self could be split into two parts.

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