Crossing the Bar of ‘Self’—A Hypothesis-Generating Value-Based Framework for Dementia Risk and Resilience

Contemporary neuroscience increasingly conceptualizes the self as a dynamic neurocognitive process supported by interacting cortical hubs and large-scale networks. In this Opinion, we introduce self-configuration as a provisional, hypothesis-generating construct: a time-bounded, context-sensitive pattern across self-referential appraisal, interoceptive monitoring, autobiographical framing, and self-other orientation. It is not a validated scale, diagnosis, or neural biomarker and must be distinguished empirically from established constructs such as trait neuroticism, rumination, depressive symptoms, and self-transcendence. We use a heuristic continuum between a rigid, self-focused pole and a flexible, prosocial pole. Evidence supports the component psychological processes and network functions, but no study has directly linked the integrated construct to dementia risk or resilience. Accordingly, regional mappings, disease-specific emphases, and candidate manipulations are presented as falsifiable hypotheses rather than mechanisms or clinical recommendations. The framework is intended to guide multimethod construct validation and longitudinal or experimental testing, not to represent an evidence-based model of dementia risk or prevention.