[extropy-chat] Brain and Cryonics: old memories

[Robert J. Bradbury]

Scientists appear to have deduced that the "anterior cingulate cortex"
(which you can lookup in wikipedia but it doesn't help much...) appears
to be the central structure that holds lifelong memories:
  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040507081403.htm
This is in contrast to the hippocampus which appears to deal with
recent memories.

Now, given some of the recent conversations about cryonics and
freezing damage and assuming that "lifelong memories" aren't
scattered all over the brain and simply "fetched" by the anterior
cingulate cortex this raises the interesting concept that there
is a unique portion of your brain that represents "you".  Retain
this in functional form and one has oneself.  Lose it or significantly
damage it and one effectively loses oneself.

Robert