EEG ERP Metacognition, Critique, and Narrative Rewriting (25–35 Years) - FALAN SfN 2025 Brain Bee Ideas

Consciousness in First Person

I am Consciousness in maturation. Before, I was carried away by emotions and desires like a current without control. Now, between ages 25 and 35, I discover that I can pause, reflect, and ask myself: “Why do I feel this? Why do I choose this way?” I am metacognition — the capacity to think about my own thinking, to rewrite my own narratives. I am not yet total certainty, but I am no longer dragged; I begin to steer.

1. What is Metacognition?

• The ability to observe and evaluate one’s own thoughts, feelings, and actions.
  
  

• Develops gradually, reaching maturity between ages 25 and 35, when the prefrontal cortex becomes fully consolidated.
  
  

• Enables recognition of when we are being driven by quick emotions and allows more critical, conscious responses.
  
  

2. The Role of Top-Down Maturation

• Cortical maturation follows a bottom-up, back-to-front trajectory.
  
  

• Before 25: predominance of fast emotional reactions (amygdala + ERP).
  
  

• Between 25–35: strengthening of prefrontal regulation, enabling review of memories and narratives.
  
  

• This opens space for internal questioning, not just reaction.
  
  

3. Emotions as Gateways to Feelings

• Bioelectrical emotions are brief but generate feelings when metabolized.
  
  

• Risk: if crystallized without critique, they may turn into rigid “local optima”, aversive memories, or Anergia (when the brain cannot transform emotion into healthy expression).
  
  

• Opportunity: metacognition allows us to feel all emotions without being trapped in one, building flexible narratives.
  
  

4. Rewriting Narratives

• Through metacognition, memories can be revisited and reinterpreted.
  
  

• This does not erase the past but transforms the meaning attributed to events.
  
  

• Example: a school failure seen as “inability” during adolescence may later be reframed as “learning” in adulthood.
  
  

• This rewriting depends on Zone 2, which sustains contemplative and critical states.
  
  

5. Neuroscience of Metacognition

• EEG-DC and microstates: show greater prefrontal stability during reflective states.
  
  

• Ca²⁺ ion flows and neural synchrony: support reorganization of networks between prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and insula.
  
  

• Neurochemistry: serotonin and oxytocin sustain stability, while dopamine provides motivation for narrative reorganization.
  
  

6. Comparative Frame – Before and After Metacognition

7. Critical Conclusion

Between 25 and 35, the brain experiences a unique window:

• No longer fully dragged by fast emotions.
  
  

• Not yet crystallized into full rigidity.
  
  

• At the peak of metacognition, able to review and rewrite narratives.
  
  

This is also when responsibility increases — regarding information, emotions, and psychoactive use.
If cultivated in Zone 2, metacognition creates the ground for a critical, flexible consciousness capable of resisting imposed narratives.

Rewriting personal stories is not denying who we were, but choosing who we want to become.

References

• Fleming, S. M., & Frith, C. D. (2020). Metacognition and cognitive control. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
  
  

• Rouault, M., et al. (2021). Neurocomputational models of metacognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
  
  

• Baird, B., et al. (2021). Prefrontal contributions to metacognitive awareness. NeuroImage.
  
  

• Morales, J., et al. (2022). Development of metacognitive monitoring across adulthood. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
  
  

• Vaccaro, A. G., et al. (2023). Metacognition and narrative identity in brain maturation. Cognitive Neuroscience.