We all wonder how similar our individual thoughts are. We are
fairly sure that our brains are not identical, not like the
little worm C. elegans with its 302 neurons and all the synapses
mapped. But we are also fairly sure that we have great
similarity in the architecture of our brains; we all have the
same little motor homunculus across the top of our brains that
we see in illustrations. We all have the primary optical
perception in predictable locations at the back of the brain. It
seems pretty clear that different aspects of brain function have
different levels of individuality – content of memories would be
almost completely individual while control of muscles would be
quite standardized. Some light has been shone on the subject by
J.A. Clithero and others in NeuroImage (see citation). They have
compared fMRI scans ‘within-participants’ with those ‘cross-
participants’. Where in the brain is there similar BOLD activity
for a type of event in a single person and where is there
similarity between people? Nea