4.33 The Interpreter in Human Psychology

Decades of research have suggested that consciousness involves processing by distributed networks of functionally specific brain areas that may be selectively damaged. Conscious experience, however, seems unitary and coherent, and this impression may be preserved in patients in whom some of the processes normally available to awareness have been damaged. Several lines of evidence suggest that the construction of a coherent account of an individual’s existence involves interpretation of the person’s environment and actions by the left hemisphere. This involves the generation of explanations for experience and behavior, and is probably supported by regions in the left hemisphere that also support language and logical inference. A system for interpreting one’s own, and others’, behavior may have evolved as behavioral complexity and flexibility increased.