Neuroanatomical Evidence for Distinct Cognitive and Affective Components of Self

Neural correlates of self-reflection in post-traumatic stress disorder

OBJECTIVE

Disturbances in self-referential processing (SRP) are increasingly recognized in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In healthy adults, SRP tasks engage the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) brain regions that have shown altered function in PTSD. We hypothesized that individuals with PTSD would differ from controls in functional activation of the MPFC and PCC during SRP.

METHOD

We compared neural activation in healthy controls (n = 15) and participants with PTSD (n = 20) during a SRP task, using fMRI at 4.0T.

RESULTS

Controls made faster responses to the self-relevance of personal characteristics than to the accuracy of general facts, whereas response times did not differ between these conditions in PTSD. Controls also demonstrated greater MPFC (dorsal and ventral) and PCC response when considering the self-relevance of personal characteristics in comparison with the accuracy of general facts. Individuals with PTSD demonstrated less MPFC response than did healthy controls for the contrast of self-relevance of personal characteristics relative to general facts.

CONCLUSIONS

These results implicate MPFC in SRP disturbances associated with PTSD. These findings are relevant to current proposals for including symptoms of negative self-referential cognition and identity-existential disturbance as diagnostically relevant to PTSD.

Why are you looking like that? How the context influences evaluation and processing of human faces

Perception and evaluation of facial expressions are known to be heavily modulated by emotional features of contextual information. Such contextual effects, however, might also be driven by non-emotional aspects of contextual information, an interaction of emotional and non-emotional factors, and by the observers' inherent traits. Therefore, we sought to assess whether contextual information about self-reference in addition to information about valence influences the evaluation and neural processing of neutral faces. Furthermore, we investigated whether social anxiety moderates these effects. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, participants viewed neutral facial expressions preceded by a contextual sentence conveying either positive or negative evaluations about the participant or about somebody else. Contextual influences were reflected in rating and fMRI measures, with strong effects of self-reference on brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and right fusiform gyrus. Additionally, social anxiety strongly affected the response to faces conveying negative, self-related evaluations as revealed by the participants' rating patterns and brain activity in cortical midline structures and regions of interest in the left and right middle frontal gyrus. These results suggest that face perception and processing are highly individual processes influenced by emotional and non-emotional aspects of contextual information and further modulated by individual personality traits.

Default mode network activity and connectivity in psychopathology

Neuropsychiatric disorders are associated with abnormal function of the default mode network (DMN), a distributed network of brain regions more active during rest than during performance of many attention-demanding tasks and characterized by a high degree of functional connectivity (i.e., temporal correlations between brain regions). Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have revealed that the DMN in the healthy brain is associated with stimulus-independent thought and self-reflection and that greater suppression of the DMN is associated with better performance on attention-demanding tasks. In schizophrenia and depression, the DMN is often found to be hyperactivated and hyperconnected. In schizophrenia this may relate to overly intensive self-reference and impairments in attention and working memory. In depression, DMN hyperactivity may be related to negative rumination. These findings are considered in terms of what is known about psychological functions supported by the DMN, and alteration of the DMN in other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Self-development: integrating cognitive, socioemotional, and neuroimaging perspectives

This review integrates cognitive, socioemotional, and neuroimaging perspectives on self-development. Neural correlates of key processes implicated in personal and social identity are reported from studies of children, adolescents, and adults, including autobiographical memory, direct and reflected self-appraisals, and social exclusion. While cortical midline structures of medial prefrontal cortex and medial posterior parietal cortex are consistently identified in neuroimaging studies considering personal identity from a primarily cognitive perspective ("who am I?"), additional regions are implicated by studies considering personal and social identity from a more socioemotional perspective ("what do others think about me, where do I fit in?"), especially in child or adolescent samples. The involvement of these additional regions (including tempo-parietal junction and posterior superior temporal sulcus, temporal poles, anterior insula, ventral striatum, anterior cingulate cortex, middle cingulate cortex, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) suggests mentalizing, emotion, and emotion regulation are central to self-development. In addition, these regions appear to function atypically during personal and social identity tasks in autism and depression, exhibiting a broad pattern of hypoactivation and hyperactivation, respectively.

An fMRI investigation of emotional processing of body shape in bulimia nervosa

OBJECTIVE

Cognitive-behavioral theories of eating disorder etiology emphasize the role of body-oriented self-schemas. Examination of brain regions associated with self-referencing, such as medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), during processing of body-related stimuli can thus be utilized to evaluate such theories.

METHOD

Twelve women with bulima nervosa (BN) and 12 comparison women underwent functional brain imaging while viewing images of women with either thin or overweight bodies in a self-referencing context.

RESULTS

For thin bodies, there was no significant mPFC activation for either group. For overweight bodies, mPFC activation was significantly greater for BN patients, with a focus in subregions associated with emotional processing.

DISCUSSION

These findings are consistent with cognitive models of eating disorders which posit that negative body-related stimuli are more central to self-schemas and more emotionally provocative in persons with eating disorders, lending support to treatment and prevention interventions that emphasize body overvaluation as a primary target of change.

Hippocampal activity is associated with self-descriptiveness effect in memory, whereas self-reference effect in memory depends on medial prefrontal activity

The self has long been regarded as a unique cognitive structure by virtue of its superior mnemonic abilities. Two separate effects result from this self memory facilitation: self-reference effect and self-descriptiveness effect in memory. Self-reference effect denotes that information processed with reference to the self is better remembered than information processed with reference to others, whereas self-descriptiveness effect indicates that items judged to be self-relevant is remembered better than items judged not to be relevant to self during self-reference task. Although there is a compelling connection between self-reference effect in memory and self mentalization processes indexed by the medial prefrontal activity, the underlying mechanisms of the self-descriptiveness effect in memory have remained underspecified. In the present fMRI study, we used a subsequent memory paradigm to examine the neural correlates of self-descriptiveness and self-reference effect in memory. Participants encoded personality traits while performing self-reference and other-reference task (judged the descriptiveness of the traits to themselves or a famous person "Bruce Lee"), and then were given a test of recognition memory outside the scanner. It is revealed that the hippocampal activity corresponded with self-descriptiveness effect in memory, but the activity of the medial prefrontal cortex and perirhinal cortex related to self-reference effect in memory. These findings suggested that the memory boost for self-relevant items relies on the enhanced relational binding mechanisms employed during self-relevant items.

Source imaging of P300 auditory evoked potentials and clinical correlations in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder

OBJECTIVE

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with abnormal information processing. The P300 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) is known to be a useful marker of information processing. The purposes of this study were to determine the P300 current source density in PTSD patients, and its relationship with symptom severity.

METHODS

ERPs were recorded in 30 PTSD patients and 33 healthy controls while participants were performing the auditory oddball task. We compared P300 current source density data--obtained by standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA)--between the two groups. The correlation between P300 current source density and clinical symptoms (as evaluated using the Korean version of the Structured Interview for PTSD--K-SIPS and Davidson Trauma Scale--K-DTS) was conducted.

RESULTS

In PTSD patients, the current source density of P300 is significantly reduced in the inferior frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, insula, and anterior cingulate compared to healthy controls. Total K-DTS scores were correlated with the P300 current source density in the posterior cingulate gyrus. The K-SIP B items (re-experiencing) and K-SIB D items (increased arousal) were positively correlated with P300 current source densities in several brain regions located in the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobe (p<0.05). Conversely, the K-SIP C items (avoidance and numbing) were negatively correlated with P300 current source densities in the superior and middle frontal gyri in the frontal lobes (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

The P300 current source densities reflected the pathophysiology of PTSD patients. PTSD symptoms were related to different neural activities, depending on their symptom characteristics.

Reduced negative BOLD responses in the default-mode network and increased self-focus in depression

OBJECTIVES

Functional imaging studies in major depressive disorder (MDD) indicate abnormal resting state neural activity and negative blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses (NBRs) in regions of the default-mode network (DMN).

METHODS

Since activity in DMN regions has been associated with self-relatedness, we investigated neural activity in these regions during self-related emotional judgement and passive picture viewing in 25 patients with MDD and 25 healthy controls in an event-related fMRI design.

RESULTS

Behaviourally, MDD subjects showed significantly higher ratings of self-relatedness that also correlated with depression symptoms such as hopelessness. Neuroimaging results in MDD patients showed significantly lower negative BOLD responses (NBRs) in anterior medial cortical regions during judgement of self-relatedness while posterior medial regions showed increased NBRs. Unlike in healthy subjects, the anterior medial cortical NBRs were no longer parametrically modulated by the degree of self-relatedness in MDD patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that reduced NBRs in the anterior regions of the default-mode network may signify decoupling from self-relatedness in MDD patients with the consecutive abnormal increase of self-focus.

Differential neural activity and connectivity for processing one's own face: a preliminary report

The experience of self is unique and pivotal to clinically relevant cognitive and emotional functions. However, well-controlled data on specialized brain regions and functional networks underlying the experience of self remain limited. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated neural activity and connectivity specific to processing one's own face in healthy women by examining neural responses to the pictures of the subjects' own faces in contrast to faces of their own mothers, female friends and strangers during passive viewing, emotional and self-relevance evaluations. The processing of one's own face in comparison to processing of familiar faces revealed significant activity in right anterior insula (AI) and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and less activity in right posterior cingulate/precuneus (PCC/PCu) across all tasks. Further, the seed-based correlation analysis of right AI, and left IPL, showed differential functional networks in self and familiar faces contrasts. There were no differences in valence and saliency ratings between self and familiar others. Our preliminary results suggest that the self-experience cued by self-face is processed predominantly by brain regions and related networks that link interoceptive feelings and sense of body ownership to self-awareness and less by regions of higher order functioning such as autobiographical memories.

Self-face evaluation and self-esteem in young females: an fMRI study using contrast effect

Self-evaluation is affected by facial attractiveness, particularly in females, and may be related to self-esteem. Self-face evaluation is relative to the attractiveness of others ("contrast effect"). In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined both the neural correlates of self-face evaluation using the contrast effect and a neural relationship between self-face evaluation and self-esteem. We prepared the following three types of "target faces": one's own face (S), a close friend's face (F), and an unfamiliar face (O). They were randomly intermingled among same-sex unfamiliar foils during two block-types. Our intention was to evoke positive evaluations of target faces using unattractive foils in one block-type, and negative evaluations using attractive foils in the other. The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) exhibited greater activation from the positive modulation for S than for O. Activation in these regions was positively correlated with self-esteem and showed the same tendency between S and F. PCC and VTA, which have been implicated in the processing of self-relatedness and reward, respectively, might play a role in the processing of positive self-face evaluation as self-referential stimuli and social rewards, respectively. These results suggested that the PCC and the VTA are the neural correlates of positive self-face evaluation, and that there is a neural relationship between self-face evaluation and self-esteem. The positive evaluation of a close friend's face might be perceived and processed in the same way as one's own face.

The neural sociometer: brain mechanisms underlying state self-esteem

On the basis of the importance of social connection for survival, humans may have evolved a "sociometer"-a mechanism that translates perceptions of rejection or acceptance into state self-esteem. Here, we explored the neural underpinnings of the sociometer by examining whether neural regions responsive to rejection or acceptance were associated with state self-esteem. Participants underwent fMRI while viewing feedback words ("interesting," "boring") ostensibly chosen by another individual (confederate) to describe the participant's previously recorded interview. Participants rated their state self-esteem in response to each feedback word. Results demonstrated that greater activity in rejection-related neural regions (dorsal ACC, anterior insula) and mentalizing regions was associated with lower-state self-esteem. Additionally, participants whose self-esteem decreased from prescan to postscan versus those whose self-esteem did not showed greater medial prefrontal cortical activity, previously associated with self-referential processing, in response to negative feedback. Together, the results inform our understanding of the origin and nature of our feelings about ourselves.

How understanding the neurobiology of complex post-traumatic stress disorder can inform clinical practice: a social cognitive and affective neuroscience approach

OBJECTIVE

In this review, we examine the relevance of the social cognitive and affective neuroscience (SCAN) paradigm for an understanding of the psychology and neurobiology of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its effective treatment.

METHOD

The relevant literature pertaining to SCAN and PTSD was reviewed.

RESULTS

We suggest that SCAN offers a novel theoretical paradigm for understanding psychological trauma and its numerous clinical outcomes, most notably problems in emotional/self-awareness, emotion regulation, social emotional processing and self-referential processing. A core set of brain regions appear to mediate these collective psychological functions, most notably the cortical midline structures, the amygdala, the insula, posterior parietal cortex and temporal poles, suggesting that problems in one area (e.g. emotional awareness) may relate to difficulties in another (e.g. self-referential processing). We further propose, drawing on clinical research, that the experiences of individuals with PTSD related to chronic trauma often reflect impairments in multiple social cognitive and affective functions.

CONCLUSION

It is important that the assessment and treatment of individuals with complex PTSD not only addresses traumatic memories but also takes a SCAN-informed approach that focuses on the underlying deficits in emotional/self-awareness, emotion regulation, social emotional processing and self-referential processing.

Medial PFC damage abolishes the self-reference effect

Functional neuroimaging studies suggest that the medial PFC (mPFC) is a key component of a large-scale neural system supporting a variety of self-related processes. However, it remains unknown whether the mPFC is critical for such processes. In this study, we used a human lesion approach to examine this question. We administered a standard trait judgment paradigm [Kelley, W. M., Macrae, C. N., Wyland, C. L., Caglar, S., Inati, S., & Heatherton, T. F. Finding the self? An event-related fMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14, 785-794, 2002] to patients with focal brain damage to the mPFC. The self-reference effect (SRE), a memory advantage conferred by self-related processing, served as a measure of intact self-processing ability. We found that damage to the mPFC abolished the SRE. The results demonstrate that the mPFC is necessary for the SRE and suggest that this structure is important for self-referential processing and the neural representation of self.

Medial prefrontal cortex supports source memory accuracy for self-referenced items

Previous behavioral work suggests that processing information in relation to the self enhances subsequent item recognition. Neuroimaging evidence further suggests that regions along the cortical midline, particularly those of the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), underlie this benefit. There has been little work to date, however, on the effects of self-referential encoding on source memory accuracy or whether the medial PFC might contribute to source memory for self-referenced materials. In the current study, we used fMRI to measure neural activity while participants studied and subsequently retrieved pictures of common objects superimposed on one of two background scenes (sources) under either self-reference or self-external encoding instructions. Both item recognition and source recognition were better for objects encoded self-referentially than self-externally. Neural activity predictive of source accuracy was observed in the medial PFC (Brodmann area 10) at the time of study for self-referentially but not self-externally encoded objects. The results of this experiment suggest that processing information in relation to the self leads to a mnemonic benefit for source level features, and that activity in the medial PFC contributes to this source memory benefit. This evidence expands the purported role that the medial PFC plays in self-referencing.

Orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex are modulated by motivated social cognition

Neural research on social cognition has not examined motivations known to influence social cognition. One fundamental motivation in social cognition is positivity motivation, that is, the desire to view close others in an overly positive light. Positivity motivation does not extend to non-close others. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging study is the first to identify neural regions modulated by positivity motivation. Participants compared the personalities of a close other (i.e., romantic partner) and a non-close other (i.e., roommate) with their average peer. Romantic partners were perceived as above average under certain conditions; roommates were perceived as similar to an average peer across conditions. Neural regions previously associated with social cognition did not significantly relate to positivity motivation. Instead, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and, to a lesser extent, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation increased when social targets were perceived as similar to an average peer. Furthermore, OFC activity negatively correlated with the extent to which a social target was perceived as above average. Intimacy with the social target modulated the extent to which ventral ACC distinguished positive from negative stimuli. The results expand current knowledge about neural regions associated with social cognition and provide initial information needed to create neural models of social cognition.

Atypical modulation of medial prefrontal cortex to self-referential comments in generalized social phobia

Generalized social phobia (GSP) involves the fear of being negatively evaluated. Previous work suggests that self-referentiality, mediated by the medial prefrontal cortex (MFPC), plays an important role in the disorder. However, it is not clear whether this anomalous MPFC response to self-related information in patients with GSP concerns an increased representation of their own or others' opinions. In this article, we examine whether GSP is associated with increased response to own (1st person) or other individuals' (2nd person) opinions relative to healthy individuals. Unmedicated individuals with GSP (n=15) and age-, IQ-, and gender-matched comparison individuals (n=15) read 1st (e.g., I'm ugly), and 2nd (e.g., You're ugly) person viewpoint comments during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We observed significant group-by-viewpoint interactions within the ventral MPFC. Whereas the healthy comparison individuals showed significantly increased (or less decreased) BOLD responses to 1st relative to 2nd person viewpoints, the patients showed significantly increased responses to 2nd relative to 1st person viewpoints. The reduced BOLD responses to 1st person viewpoint comments shown by the patients correlated significantly with severity of social anxiety symptom severity. These results underscore the importance of dysfunctional self-referential processing and MPFC in GSP. We believe that these data reflect a reorganization of self-referential reasoning in the disorder with a self-concept perhaps atypically related to the view of others.

Anterior cingulate activation is related to a positivity bias and emotional stability in successful aging

BACKGROUND

Behavioral studies consistently reported an increased preference for positive experiences in older adults. The socio-emotional selectivity theory explains this positivity effect with a motivated goal shift in emotion regulation, which probably depends on available cognitive resources. The present study investigates the neurobiological mechanism underlying this hypothesis.

METHODS

Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired in 21 older and 22 young subjects while performing a spatial-cueing paradigm that manipulates attentional load on emotional face distracters. We focused our analyses on the anterior cingulate cortex as a key structure of cognitive control of emotion.

RESULTS

Elderly subjects showed a specifically increased distractibility by happy faces when more attentional resources were available for face processing. This effect was paralleled by an increased engagement of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, and this frontal engagement was significantly correlated with emotional stability.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study highlights how the brain might mediate the tendency to preferentially engage in positive information processing in healthy aging. The finding of a resource-dependency of this positivity effect suggests demanding self-regulating processes that are related to emotional well-being. These findings are of particular relevance regarding implications for the understanding, treatment, and prevention of nonsuccessful aging like highly prevalent late-life depression.

Neural mechanisms of the cognitive model of depression

In the 40 years since Aaron Beck first proposed his cognitive model of depression, the elements of this model--biased attention, biased processing, biased thoughts and rumination, biased memory, and dysfunctional attitudes and schemas--have been consistently linked with the onset and maintenance of depression. Although numerous studies have examined the neural mechanisms that underlie the cognitive aspects of depression, their findings have not been integrated with Beck's cognitive model. In this Review, we identify the functional and structural neurobiological architecture of Beck's cognitive model of depression. Although the mechanisms underlying each element of the model differ, in general the negative cognitive biases in depression are facilitated by increased influence from subcortical emotion processing regions combined with attenuated top-down cognitive control.

Valuing one's self: medial prefrontal involvement in epistemic and emotive investments in self-views

Recent neuroimaging research has revealed that the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is consistently engaged when people form mental representations of themselves. However, the precise function of this region in self-representation is not yet fully understood. Here, we investigate whether the MPFC contributes to epistemic and emotive investments in self-views, which are essential components of the self-concept that stabilize self-views and shape how one feels about oneself. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that the level of activity in the MPFC when people think about their personal traits (by judging trait adjectives for self-descriptiveness) depends on their investments in the particular self-view under consideration, as assessed by postscan rating scales. Furthermore, different forms of investments are associated with partly distinct medial prefrontal areas: a region of the dorsal MPFC is uniquely related to the degree of certainty with which a particular self-view is held (one's epistemic investment), whereas a region of the ventral MPFC responds specifically to the importance attached to this self-view (one's emotive investment). These findings provide new insight into the role of the MPFC in self-representation and suggest that the ventral MPFC confers degrees of value upon the particular conception of the self that people construct at a given moment.

Localization of dysfunction in major depressive disorder: prefrontal cortex and amygdala

Despite considerable effort, the localization of dysfunction in major depressive disorder (MDD) remains poorly understood. We present a hypothesis about its localization that builds on recent findings from primate neuropsychology. The hypothesis has four key components: a deficit in the valuation of "self" underlies the core disorder in MDD; the medial frontal cortex represents "self"; interactions between the amygdala and cortical representations update their valuation; and inefficiency in using positive feedback by orbital prefrontal cortex contributes to MDD.

Medial prefrontal cortex activity when thinking about others depends on their age

This functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity as young and older participants rated an unknown young and older person, and themselves, on personality characteristics. For both young and older participants, there was greater activation in ventral mPFC (anterior cingulate) when they made judgments about own-age than other-age individuals. Additionally, across target age and participant age, there was greater activity in a more anterior region of ventral mPFC (largely medial frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate) when participants rated others than when they rated themselves. We discuss potential interpretations of these findings in the context of previous results suggesting functional specificity of subregions of ventral mPFC.

An anterior-to-posterior shift in midline cortical activity in schizophrenia during self-reflection

BACKGROUND

Deficits in social cognition, including impairments in self-awareness, contribute to the overall functional disability associated with schizophrenia. Studies in healthy subjects have shown that social cognitive functions, including self-reflection, rely on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate gyrus, and these regions exhibit highly correlated activity during "resting" states. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia show dysfunction of this network during self-reflection and that this abnormal activity is associated with changes in the strength of resting-state correlations between these regions.

METHODS

Activation during self-reflection and control tasks was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging in 19 patients with schizophrenia and 20 demographically matched control subjects. In addition, the resting-state functional connectivity of midline cortical areas showing abnormal self-reflection-related activation in schizophrenia was measured.

RESULTS

Compared with control subjects, the schizophrenia patients demonstrated lower activation of the right ventral mPFC and greater activation of the mid/posterior cingulate gyri bilaterally during self-reflection, relative to a control task. A similar pattern was seen during overall social reflection. In addition, functional connectivity between the portion of the left mid/posterior cingulate gyrus showing abnormally elevated activity during self-reflection in schizophrenia, and the dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus was lower in the schizophrenia patients compared with control subjects.

CONCLUSIONS

Schizophrenia is associated with an anterior-to-posterior shift in introspection-related activation, as well as changes in functional connectivity, of the midline cortex. These findings provide support for the hypothesis that aberrant midline cortical function contributes to social cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.

Roles of medial prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex in self-evaluation

Empirical investigations of the relation of frontal lobe function to self-evaluation have mostly examined the evaluation of abstract qualities in relation to self versus other people. The present research furthers our understanding of frontal lobe involvement in self-evaluation by examining two processes that have not been widely studied by neuroscientists: on-line self-evaluations and correction of systematic judgment errors that influence self-evaluation. Although people evaluate their abstract qualities, it is equally important that perform on-line evaluations to assess the success of their behavior in a particular situation. In addition, self-evaluations of task performance are sometimes overconfident because of systematic judgment errors. What role do the neural regions associated with abstract self-evaluations and decision bias play in on-line evaluation and self-evaluation bias? In this fMRI study, self-evaluation in two reasoning tasks was examined; one elicited overconfident self-evaluations of performance because of salient but misleading aspects of the task and the other was free from misleading aspects. Medial PFC (mPFC), a region associated with self-referential processing, was generally involved in on-line self-evaluations but not specific to accurate or overconfident evaluation. Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) activity, a region associated with accurate nonsocial judgment, negatively predicted individual differences in overconfidence and was negatively associated with confidence level for incorrect trials.

Neuroscience of self and self-regulation

As a social species, humans have a fundamental need to belong that encourages behaviors consistent with being a good group member. Being a good group member requires the capacity for self-regulation, which allows people to alter or inhibit behaviors that would place them at risk for group exclusion. Self-regulation requires four psychological components. First, people need to be aware of their behavior so as to gauge it against societal norms. Second, people need to understand how others are reacting to their behavior so as to predict how others will respond to them. This necessitates a third mechanism, which detects threat, especially in complex social situations. Finally, there needs to be a mechanism for resolving discrepancies between self-knowledge and social expectations or norms, thereby motivating behavior to resolve any conflict that exists. This article reviews recent social neuroscience research on the psychological components that support the human capacity for self-regulation.

Social norm processing in adult social phobia: atypically increased ventromedial frontal cortex responsiveness to unintentional (embarrassing) transgressions

OBJECTIVE

Little is known about the neural underpinnings of generalized social phobia, which is defined by a persistent heightened fear of social disapproval. Using event-related functional MRI (fMRI), the authors examined whether the intent of an event, which mediates the neural response to social disapproval in healthy individuals, differentially affects response in generalized social phobia.

METHOD

Sixteen patients with generalized social phobia and 16 healthy comparison subjects group-matched on age, gender, and IQ underwent fMRI scans while reading stories that involved neutral social events, unintentional social transgressions (e.g., choking on food at a party and coughing it up), or intentional social transgressions (e.g., disliking food at a party and spitting it out).

RESULTS

Significant group-by-transgression interactions were observed in ventral regions of the medial prefrontal cortex. Healthy individuals tended to show increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses to intentional relative to unintentional transgressions. Patients with generalized social phobia, however, showed significantly increased responses to the unintentional transgressions. They also rated the unintentional transgressions as significantly more embarrassing than did the comparison subjects. Results also revealed significant group main effects in the amygdala and insula bilaterally, reflecting elevated generalized social phobia responses in these regions to all event types.

CONCLUSIONS

These results further implicate the medial prefrontal cortex in the pathophysiology of generalized social phobia, specifically through its involvement in distorted self-referential processing. These results also further underscore the extended role of the amygdala and insula in the processing of social stimuli more generally in generalized social phobia.

Insula and orbital frontal cortex activity underlying emotion interference resolution in working memory

Previous research has shown that emotional information aids conflict resolution in working memory [WM; Levens, S. M., & Phelps, E. A. Emotion processing effects on interference resolution in working memory. Journal of Emotion, 8, 267-280, 2008]. Using a recency-probes WM paradigm, it was found that positive and negative emotional stimuli reduced the amount of interference created when information that was once relevant conflicted with currently relevant information. To explore the neural mechanisms behind these facilitation effects, an event-related fMRI version of the recency-probes task was conducted using neutral and arousing positive and negative words as stimuli. Results replicate previous findings showing that the left and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) is involved in the interference resolution of neutral information and reveal that the IFG is involved in the interference resolution of emotional information as well. In addition, ROIs in the right and left anterior insula and in the right orbital frontal cortex (OFC) were identified that appear to underlie emotional interference resolution in WM. We conclude that the IFG underlies neutral and emotional interference resolution, and that additional regions of the anterior insula and OFC may contribute to the facilitation of interference resolution for emotional information. These findings clarify the role of the insula and OFC in affective and executive processing, specifically in WM conflict resolution.

Associations and dissociations between default and self-reference networks in the human brain

Neuroimaging has revealed consistent activations in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) extending to precuneus both during explicit self-reference tasks and during rest, a period during which some form of self-reference is assumed to occur in the default mode of brain function. The similarity between these two patterns of midline cortical activation may reflect a common neural system for explicit and default-mode self-reference, but there is little direct evidence about the similarities and differences between the neural systems that mediate explicit self-reference versus default-mode self-reference during rest. In two experiments, we compared directly the brain regions activated by explicit self-reference during judgments about trait adjectives and by rest conditions relative to a semantic task without self-reference. Explicit self-reference preferentially engaged dorsal MPFC, rest preferentially engaged precuneus, and both self-reference and rest commonly engaged ventral MPFC and PCC. These findings indicate that there are both associations (shared components) and dissociations between the neural systems underlying explicit self-reference and the default mode of brain function.

Reduced functional coupling in the default-mode network during self-referential processing

Activity within the default-mode network (DMN) is thought to be related to self-referential processing, such as thinking about one's preferences or personality traits. Although the DMN is generally considered to function as a network, evidence is starting to accumulate that suggests that areas of the DMN are each specialized for different subfunctions of self-referential processing. Here, we address the issue of functional specialization by investigating changes in coupling between areas of the DMN during self-referential processing. To this aim, brain activity was assessed during a task in which subjects had to indicate whether a trait adjective described their own personality (self-referential, Self condition), that of another person (other-referential, Other condition), or whether the trait was socially desirable (nonreferential, Control condition). To exclude confounding effects of cardiorespiratory processes on activity and functional coupling, we corrected the fMRI signal for these effects. Activity within areas of the DMN was found to be modulated by self-referential processing. More specifically, during the Self condition compared to the Other and Control condition, activity within the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, ventral medial prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex was increased. Moreover, coupling between areas of the DMN was reduced during the Self condition compared to the Other and Control condition, while coupling between regions of the DMN and regions outside the network was increased. As such, these results provide an indication for functional specialization within the DMN and support the notion that each area of the DMN is involved in different subfunctions of self-referential processing.

Clan mentality: evidence that the medial prefrontal cortex responds to close others

Kinship, friendship alliances, and perceptions of others' beliefs guide social interactions and are central to cohesive group behavior. Under certain conditions, brain systems that involve regions along the frontal midline increase activity when inferences are drawn about others who share a similar view to one's own (similarity). A prominent hypothesis is that these regions contribute to social cognition by simulating the other person's perspective based on one's own experience. An alternative is that certain regions process the social relevance of the person (closeness) to oneself and contribute to the assessment akin to signals that govern behavioral approach responses. These alternatives were explored across four functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments (n = 98). Experiment 1 localized the target midline regions in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and anterior medial prefrontal cortex by having participants make personal judgments. The two dimensions (similarity, closeness) were crossed in experiment 2 using actual friends of the participant and unknown others. Making judgments about oneself and friends resulted in increased midline response relative to unknown others regardless of whether the friends shared similar views as the participant. Experiment 3 revealed that similarity was not a factor even when close others were not included. Experiment 4 directly contrasted two extremes: participants made inferences about similar, unknown others and dissimilar friends. Judgments about the close others again increased blood oxygenation level-dependent response along the frontal midline. These results encourage further exploration of the idea that frontal systems linked with limbic circuits facilitate assessment of the relevance or personal significance in social contexts.

Dissociable neural systems supporting knowledge about human character and appearance in ourselves and others

Functional neuroimaging has identified a neural system comprising posterior cingulate (pCC) and medial prefrontal (mPFC) cortices that appears to mediate self-referential thought. It is unclear whether the two components of this system mediate similar or different psychological processes, and how specific this system is for self relative to others. In an fMRI study, we compared brain responses for evaluation of character (e.g., honest) versus appearance (e.g., svelte) for oneself, one's mother (a close other), and President Bush (a distant other). There was a double dissociation between dorsal mPFC, which was more engaged for character than appearance judgments, and pCC, which was more engaged for appearance than character judgments. A ventral region of mPFC was engaged for judgments involving one's own character and appearance, and one's mother's character, but not her appearance. A follow-up behavioral study indicated that participants rate their own character and appearance, and their mother's character, but not her appearance, as important in their self-concept. This suggests that ventral mPFC activation reflects its role in processing information relevant to the self, but not limited to the self. Thus, specific neural systems mediate specific aspects of thinking about character and appearance in oneself and in others.

Dysfunctions in brain networks supporting empathy: an fMRI study in adults with autism spectrum disorders

The present study aimed at identifying dysfunctions in brain networks that may underlie disturbed empathic behavior in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). During functional magnetic resonance imaging, subjects were asked to identify the emotional state observed in a facial stimulus (other-task) or to evaluate their own emotional response (self-task). Behaviorally, ASD subjects performed equally to the control group during the other-task, but showed less emotionally congruent responses in the self-task. Activations in brain regions related to theory of mind were observed in both groups. Activations of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) were located in dorsal subregions in ASD subjects and in ventral areas in control subjects. During the self-task, ASD subjects activated an additional network of frontal and inferior temporal areas. Frontal areas previously associated with the human mirror system were activated in both tasks in control subjects, while ASD subjects recruited these areas during the self-task only. Activations in the ventral MPFC may provide the basis for one's "emotional bond" with other persons' emotions. Such atypical patterns of activation may underlie disturbed empathy in individuals with ASD. Subjects with ASD may use an atypical cognitive strategy to gain access to their own emotional state in response to other people's emotions.

The role of the self in mindblindness in autism

Since its inception the 'mindblindness' theory of autism has greatly furthered our understanding of the core social-communication impairments in autism spectrum conditions (ASC). However, one of the more subtle issues within the theory that needs to be elaborated is the role of the 'self'. In this article, we expand on mindblindness in ASC by addressing topics related to the self and its central role in the social world and then review recent research in ASC that has yielded important insights by contrasting processes relating to both self and other. We suggest that new discoveries lie ahead in understanding how self and other are interrelated and/or distinct, and how understanding atypical self-referential and social-cognitive mechanisms may lead to novel ideas as to how to facilitate social-communicative abilities in ASC.

Dissociable neural substrates for agentic versus conceptual representations of self

Although humans generally experience a coherent sense of selfhood, we can nevertheless articulate different aspects of self. Recent research has demonstrated that one such aspect of self--conceptual knowledge of one's own personality traits--is subserved by ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC). Here, we examined whether an alternative aspect of "self"--being an agent who acts to achieve one's own goals--relies on cognitive processes that overlap with or diverge from conceptual operationalizations of selfhood. While undergoing fMRI, participants completed tasks of both conceptual self-reference, in which they judged their own or another person's personality traits, and agentic self-reference, in which they freely chose an object or watched passively as one was chosen. The agentic task failed to modulate vMPFC, despite producing the same memory enhancement frequently observed during conceptual self-referential processing (the "self-reference" effect). Instead, agentic self-reference was associated with activation of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), a region previously implicated in planning and executing actions. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that IPS activity correlated with later memory performance for the agentic, but not conceptual, task. These results support views of the "self" as a collection of distinct mental operations distributed throughout the brain, rather than a unitary cognitive system.

Self-reference modulates the processing of emotional stimuli in the absence of explicit self-referential appraisal instructions

Self-referential evaluation of emotional stimuli has been shown to modify the way emotional stimuli are processed. This study aimed at a new approach by investigating whether self-reference alters emotion processing in the absence of explicit self-referential appraisal instructions. Event-related potentials were measured while subjects spontaneously viewed a series of emotional and neutral nouns. Nouns were preceded either by personal pronouns ('my') indicating self-reference or a definite article ('the') without self-reference. The early posterior negativity, a brain potential reflecting rapid attention capture by emotional stimuli was enhanced for unpleasant and pleasant nouns relative to neutral nouns irrespective of whether nouns were preceded by personal pronouns or articles. Later brain potentials such as the late positive potential were enhanced for unpleasant nouns only when preceded by personal pronouns. Unpleasant nouns were better remembered than pleasant or neutral nouns when paired with a personal pronoun. Correlation analysis showed that this bias in favor of self-related unpleasant concepts can be explained by participants' depression scores. Our results demonstrate that self-reference acts as a first processing filter for emotional material to receive higher order processing after an initial rapid attention capture by emotional content has been completed. Mood-congruent processing may contribute to this effect.

Dynamic cultural influences on neural representations of the self

People living in multicultural environments often encounter situations which require them to acquire different cultural schemas and to switch between these cultural schemas depending on their immediate sociocultural context. Prior behavioral studies show that priming cultural schemas reliably impacts mental processes and behavior underlying self-concept. However, less well understood is whether or not cultural priming affects neurobiological mechanisms underlying the self. Here we examined whether priming cultural values of individualism and collectivism in bicultural individuals affects neural activity in cortical midline structures underlying self-relevant processes using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Biculturals primed with individualistic values showed increased activation within medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) during general relative to contextual self-judgments, whereas biculturals primed with collectivistic values showed increased response within MPFC and PCC during contextual relative to general self-judgments. Moreover, degree of cultural priming was positively correlated with degree of MPFC and PCC activity during culturally congruent self-judgments. These findings illustrate the dynamic influence of culture on neural representations underlying the self and, more broadly, suggest a neurobiological basis by which people acculturate to novel environments.

The neural basis of personal goal processing when envisioning future events

Episodic future thinking allows humans to mentally simulate virtually infinite future possibilities, yet this device is fundamentally goal-directed and should not be equated with fantasizing or wishful thinking. The purpose of this fMRI study was to investigate the neural basis of such goal-directed processing during future-event simulation. Participants were scanned while they imagined future events that were related to their personal goals (personal future events) and future events that were plausible but unrelated to their personal goals (nonpersonal future events). Results showed that imaging personal future events elicited stronger activation in ventral medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) compared to imaging nonpersonal future events. Moreover, these brain activations overlapped with activations elicited by a second task that assessed semantic self-knowledge (i.e., making judgments on one's own personality traits), suggesting that ventral MPFC and PCC mediate self-referential processing across different functional domains. It is suggested that these brain regions may support a collection of processes that evaluate, code, and contextualize the relevance of mental representations with regard to personal goals. The implications of these findings for the understanding of the function instantiated by the default network of the brain are also discussed.

Cognitive theory and therapy of anxiety and depression: convergence with neurobiological findings

In this review paper a modified cognitive neurophysiological model of Aaron T. Beck's cognitive formulation of anxiety and depression is proposed that provides an elaborated account of the cognitive and neural mediational processes of cognitive therapy (CT). Empirical evidence consistent with this model is discussed that indicates the effectiveness of cognitive therapy could be associated with reduced activation of the amygdalohippocampal subcortical regions implicated in the generation of negative emotion and increased activation of higher-order frontal regions involved in cognitive control of negative emotion. Future cognitive neuroscience research is needed on the unique brain substrates affected by CT and their role in facilitating symptom change. This future research would have important implications for improving the efficiency and efficacy of this treatment approach.

The neural basis of self-evaluation processing in social judgment

Event-related potentials were recorded to explore the electrophysiological correlates of self-evaluation processing when participants performed intelligence social judgment tasks (judging who is more intelligent), containing self-judgment tasks (ST) and other judgment tasks (OT). Results showed that ST elicited a greater positivity (P2) than OT in 130-250 ms, which was related to initial self-related stimuli identification. Subsequently, ST elicited a greater positivity (P3) and negativity (LNC) than OT in 300-400 and 600-800 ms. The generator of P3 was localized in the right superior temporal gyrus, which was related to elaborate intelligence self-evaluation. The generator of LNC was localized in the posterior cingulate gyrus, which was involved in making and validating a judgment in working memory.

Medial prefrontal activity differentiates self from close others

A key question in psychology and neuroscience is the extent to which the neural representation of others is incorporated with, or is distinct from, our concept of self. Recent neuroimaging research has emphasized the importance of a region in the medial prefrontal cortex [MPFC; Brodmann's area (BA) 10] when performing self-referent tasks. Specifically, previous studies have reported selective MPFC recruitment when making judgments about the self relative to a familiar but personally unknown other. The present event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study extends these findings to judgments about personally known others. Subjects were imaged while making trait adjective judgments in one of the three conditions: (i) whether the adjective described the self; (ii) whether the adjective described an intimate other (i.e., a best friend); or (iii) whether the adjective was presented in uppercase letters. Making judgments about the self relative to an intimate other selectively activated the MPFC region previously implicated in the self-processing literature. These results suggest that while we may incorporate intimate others into our self-concept, the neural correlates of the self remain distinct from intimate and non-intimate others.

Being liked activates primary reward and midline self-related brain regions

The experience of being liked is a key social event and fundamental to motivating human behavior, though little is known about its neural underpinnings. In this study, we examined the experience of being liked in a group of 15- to 24-year-old: a cohort for whom forming friendships has a great degree of salience, and for whom the explicit representation of relationships is familiar from their frequent use of social networking technologies. Study participants (n = 19) were led to believe that other participants had formed an opinion on their likability based on their appearance in a photograph, and during fMRI scanning viewed the photographs of people who had purportedly responded favorably to them (alongside photographs of control participants). Results indicated that being liked activated primary reward- and self-related regions, including the nucleus accumbens, midbrain (in an area corresponding to the ventral tegmentum), ventromedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex (including retrosplenial cortex), amygdala, and insula/opercular cortex. Participants showed greater activation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala in response to being liked by people that they regarded highly compared to those they regarded less so. Finally, being liked by the opposite compared to the same gender activated the right caudal orbitofrontal cortex and right anterior insula: areas important for the representation of primary somatic rewards. This study demonstrates that neural response to being liked has features that are consistent with response to other rewarding events, but it has additional features that reflect its intrinsically interpersonal character.

What is for me is not for you: brain correlates of intertemporal choice for self and other

People have present-biased preferences: they choose more impatiently when choosing between an immediate reward and a delayed reward, than when choosing between a delayed reward and a more delayed reward. Following McClure et al. [McClure, S.M., Laibson, D.I., Loewenstein, G., Cohen, J.D. (2004). Separate neural systems value immediate and delayed monetary rewards. Science, 306, 503.], we find that areas in the dopaminergic reward system show greater activation when a binary choice set includes both an immediate reward and a delayed reward in contrast to activation measured when the binary choice set contains only delayed rewards. The presence of an immediate reward in the choice set elevates activation of the ventral striatum, pregenual anterior cingulate cortex and anterior medial prefrontal cortex. These dopaminergic reward areas are also responsive to the identity of the recipient of the reward. Even an immediate reward does not activate these dopaminergic regions when the decision is being made for another person. Our results support the hypotheses that participants show less affective engagement (i) when they are making choices for themselves that only involve options in the future or (ii) when they are making choices for someone else. As hypothesized, we also find that behavioral choices reflect more patience when choosing for someone else.

Watching my mind unfold versus yours: an fMRI study using a novel camera technology to examine neural differences in self-projection of self versus other perspectives

Self-projection, the capacity to re-experience the personal past and to mentally infer another person's perspective, has been linked to medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). In particular, ventral mPFC is associated with inferences about one's own self, whereas dorsal mPFC is associated with inferences about another individual. In the present fMRI study, we examined self-projection using a novel camera technology, which employs a sensor and timer to automatically take hundreds of photographs when worn, in order to create dynamic visuospatial cues taken from a first-person perspective. This allowed us to ask participants to self-project into the personal past or into the life of another person. We predicted that self-projection to the personal past would elicit greater activity in ventral mPFC, whereas self-projection of another perspective would rely on dorsal mPFC. There were three main findings supporting this prediction. First, we found that self-projection to the personal past recruited greater ventral mPFC, whereas observing another person's perspective recruited dorsal mPFC. Second, activity in ventral versus dorsal mPFC was sensitive to parametric modulation on each trial by the ability to relive the personal past or to understand another's perspective, respectively. Third, task-related functional connectivity analysis revealed that ventral mPFC contributed to the medial temporal lobe network linked to memory processes, whereas dorsal mPFC contributed to the fronto-parietal network linked to controlled processes. In sum, these results suggest that ventral-dorsal subregions of the anterior midline are functionally dissociable and may differentially contribute to self-projection of self versus other.