Image:
Many of the brain structures used to represent and manipulate the body and its workings perform double duty and also play a role in the construction of the self, a process indispensable for consciousness. Somatosensory cortices are shown in orange yellow; the cingulate gyri in yellow and red; the subcortical nuclei of the hypothalamus and brain-stem tegmentum in pink; and the combination of insular cortex and thalamus in dark blue. Photography courtesy of Hanna Damasio, MD, and the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, University of Southern California.