Neuroanatomical Evidence for Distinct Cognitive and Affective Components of Self

Interactions of Emotion and Self-reference in Source Memory: An ERP Study

The way emotional information is encoded (e.g., deciding whether it is self-related or not) has been found to affect source memory. However, few studies have addressed how the emotional quality and self-referential properties of a stimulus interactively modulate brain responses during stimulus encoding and source memory recognition. In the current study, 22 participants completed five study-test cycles with negative, neutral, and positive words encoded in self-referential versus non-self-referential conditions, while event-related potentials of the electroencephalogram were recorded. An advantage of self-referential processing in source memory performance, reflected in increased recognition accuracy, was shown for neutral and positive words. At the electrophysiological level, self-referential words elicited increased amplitudes in later processing stages during encoding (700-1,200 ms) and were associated with the emergence of old/new effects in the 300-500 ms latency window linked to familiarity effects. In the 500-800 ms latency window, old/new effects emerged for all valence conditions except for negative words studied in the non-self-referential condition. Negative self-referential words also elicited a greater mobilization of post-retrieval monitoring processes, reflected in an enhanced mean amplitude in the 800-1,200 ms latency window. Together, the current findings suggest that valence and self-reference interactively modulate source memory. Specifically, negative self-related information is more likely to interfere with the recollection of source memory features.

What COVID-19 tells us about the self: The deep intersubjective and cultural layers of our brain

The COVID-19 crisis is affecting our sense of self and touches upon our existential fears. This extends to the self-other relationship, as there is both being infected and infecting the other. What does this pandemic crisis tell us about our self and relatedness, its cultural differences, and how these are rooted in the brain's relation to the world? First, we discuss the psychological and neuronal features of self and self-other relation and how they are rooted in a deeper layer of the brain's neural activity complementing its cognitive surface layer. Second, we demonstrate cultural differences of Eastern and Western concepts of the self (i.e., independency and interdependency) and how these reflect the manifestation of the brain's neuro-social and neuro-ecological alignment. Finally, we highlight the intersubjective and cultural nature of the self and its surface in the COVID-19 crisis. Discussing various lines of empirical data showing the brain's intimate alignment to both social and ecological environmental contexts, our results support the assumption of the brain's deep layer features by laying bare a continuum of different degrees of neuro-social and neuro-ecological alignment. This entails a two-stage model of self with neuro-social-ecological and psychological levels that extends the previously suggested basis model of self-specificity. We conclude that the current pandemic shows the importance of the deeper intersubjective and cultural layers of both the self and brain; their neglect can be life-threatening for the self and others and, paradoxically, might reduce, rather than enlarge, the self's sense of freedom and independence.

Evidence for self-positivity bias in a subliminal self-cue: An event-related potential study

Previous studies studies indicate that individuals tend to integrate positive information into their self-concept. However, whether such self-positivity bias would still be observed without an explicit self-related cue is unknown. In the present study, 29 participants were asked to evaluate a series of positive and negative trait adjectives, after the participants were presented with their own name or another name subliminally. During the task, their electroencephalograms were recorded. The results showed participants responded faster to positive traits than to negative traits in the self-name cue conditions. In addition, both the latencies and the amplitudes of the N400 showed significant interaction between name-cue and valence in N400 (240-440 ms) amplitudes. The earlier N400 latencies and smaller N400 amplitudes were associated with positive traits in the self-name cue. These results suggested that the self-positivity bias can also be observed in a subliminally presenting self-cue, indicating the robustness of self-positivity bias.

Evidence for Altered Neural Processing in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by difficulties in emotion regulation, self-identity disturbances, self-injurious behavior, and reduced inhibitory control. Event-related potential (ERP) studies have sought to reveal the neural correlates of cognitive distortions and behavioral alterations in BPD. The article presents an overview of the existing ERP literature pertaining to BPD and discusses whether any one of the electrophysiological findings could serve as a reliable and specific marker for BPD. In short, ERP studies investigating P300 tentatively suggest impaired inhibitory control. Moreover, reduced error- and feedback-related processing and impaired response inhibition seem to be associated with impulsivity and risk-taking behavior in BPD patients. However, these findings are not specific for BPD. Regarding emotional and self-referential information processing, individuals with BPD display heightened vigilance toward social threat impacting their cognitive performance in various social-cognitive tasks demonstrating alterations of early negative and late positive potentials. These multifaceted electrophysiological alterations may be attributed to dysfunctional activity and connectivity of frontal brain regions and the limbic system.

The Behavioral and ERP Responses to Self- and Other- Referenced Adjectives

The aim was to investigate behavioral reactions and event-related potential (ERP) responses in healthy participants under conditions of personalized attribution of emotional appraisal vocabulary to one-self or to other people. One hundred and fifty emotionally neutral, positive and negative words describing people's traits were used. Subjects were asked to attribute each word to four types of people: one-self, loved, unpleasant and neutral person. The reaction time during adjectives attribution to one-self and a loved person was shorter than during adjectives attribution to neutral and unpleasant people. Self-related adjectives induced higher amplitudes of the N400 ERP peak in the medial cortical areas in comparison with adjectives related to other people. The amplitude of P300 and P600 depended on the emotional valence of assessments, but not on the personalized attribution. The interaction between the attribution effect and the effect of emotional valence of assessments was observed for the N400 peak in the left temporal area. The maximal amplitude of N400 was revealed under self-attributing of emotionally positive adjectives. Our results supported the hypothesis that the emotional valence of assessments and the processing of information about one-self or others were related to the brain processes that differ from each other in a cortical localization or time dynamics.

Self-referential processing and emotion context insensitivity in major depressive disorder

We examined whether differential self-perception influences the salience of emotional stimuli in depressive disorders, using a perceptual matching task in which geometric shapes were arbitrarily assigned to the self and an unknown other. Participants associated shapes with personal labels (e.g. "self" or "other"). Each geometric shape additionally contained a happy, sad or neutral line drawing of a face. Participants then judged whether shape-label pairs were as originally shown or re-paired, whilst facial emotion was task-irrelevant. The results showed biased responses to self-relevant stimuli compared to other-relevant stimuli, regardless of facial emotion, for both control and depressed participants. This was reflected in sensitivity (d') and drift rate (v) measures, suggesting that self-bias and a bias towards emotion may reflect different underlying processes. We further computed bias scores by subtracting the "neutral" value of each measure (acting as baseline) from the "happy" and "sad" values of each measure, indexing an "emotional bias" (EB) score for "self" and "other" separately. Compared to control participants, depressed participants exhibited reduced "happy" and "sad" emotional biases, regardless of the self-relevance of stimuli. This finding indicates that depressed participants may exhibit generalised Emotion Context Insensitivity (ECI), characterised by hyopoattention to both positive and negative information, at short stimulus presentations. The implications of this are discussed.

The medial prefrontal cortex: a potential link between self-deception and affect

The Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC) is crucial for normal social functioning in humans. Because of its involvement in social monitoring, self-awareness, and self-enhancement, the MPFC may be critical to buffering negative affect and establishing a positive self-esteem. For example, we have previously found that disruption of the MPFC leads to more honest responses, which implies that the MPFC may be critically involved in self-deception. We therefore hypothesized that disrupting the MPFC would lead to a decrease in affect. Employing a virtual lesion TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) technique, we disrupted the MPFC while participants rated their mood based on two anchor affect terms. During TMS, the participants rated their current emotional mental state. Compared to sham TMS, it was found that mood was reduced immediately following single-pulse MPFC stimulation. The results supported the hypothesis the MPFC mood reduction occurs when the MPFC is disrupted. Because this study replicated the conditions employed in previous self-deception studies, we suggest that the results may indicate that lack of self-enhancement may lead to a decrease in mood. Further studies should examine this possibility.

Neural correlates of self-evaluation in relation to age and pubertal development in early adolescent girls

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Self-evaluation of social traits by adolescent girls elicited activation in midline brain regions.

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Age and pubertal development were not related to neural activation during self-evaluation.

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Higher vmPFC and pgACC activation were related to a higher probability of endorsing negative traits.

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Higher activation in those regions was also related to a lower probability of endorsing positive traits.

Early adolescence is marked by puberty, and is also a time of flux in self-perception. However, there is limited research on the neural correlates of self-evaluation in relation to pubertal development. The current study examined relationships between neural activation during self-evaluation of social traits and maturation (age and pubertal development) in a community sample of female adolescents. Participants (N = 143; age M = 11.65, range = 10.0–13.0) completed a functional MRI task in which they judged the self-descriptiveness of adjectives for prosocial, antisocial and social status-related traits. Pubertal development was based on self-report, and was also examined using morning salivary testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, and estradiol. Contrary to preregistered hypotheses, neither age nor pubertal development were related to neural activation during self-evaluation. We further examined whether activation in two regions-of-interest, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and perigenual anterior cingulate (pgACC), was associated with trial-level self-evaluative behavior. In line with preregistered hypotheses, higher vmPFC and pgACC activation during self-evaluation were both associated with a higher probability of endorsing negative adjectives, and a lower probability of endorsing positive adjectives. Future studies should examine neural trajectories of self-evaluation longitudinally, and investigate the predictive value of the neural correlates of self-evaluation for adolescent mental health.

Altered anterior cingulate glutamatergic metabolism in depressed adolescents with current suicidal ideation

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in emotion regulation and salience processing. Prior research has implicated ACC dysfunction in suicidal ideation (SI) and suicidal behavior. This study aimed to quantify ACC glutamatergic concentrations and to examine relationships with SI in a sample of healthy and depressed adolescents. Forty adolescents underwent clinical evaluation and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) at 3 T, utilizing a 2-dimensional J-averaged PRESS sequence sampling a medial pregenual ACC voxel. Cerebrospinal fluid-corrected ACC metabolite concentrations were compared between healthy control (HC, n = 16), depressed without SI (Dep/SI-, n = 13), and depressed with SI (Dep/SI+, n = 11) youth using general linear models covarying for age, sex, and psychotropic medication use. Relationships between ACC metabolites and continuous measures of SI were examined using multiple linear regressions. ROC analysis was used to determine the ability of glutamate+glutamine (Glx) and the N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/Glx ratio to discriminate Dep/SI- and Dep/SI+ adolescents. Dep/SI+ adolescents had higher Glx than Dep/SI- participants (padj = 0.012) and had lower NAA/Glx than both Dep/SI- (padj = 0.002) and HC adolescents (padj = 0.039). There were significant relationships between SI intensity and Glx (pFDR = 0.026), SI severity and NAA/Glx (pFDR = 0.012), and SI intensity and NAA/Glx (pFDR = 0.004). ACC Glx and NAA/Glx discriminated Dep/SI- from Dep/SI+ participants. Uncoupled NAA-glutamatergic metabolism in the ACC may play a role in suicidal ideation and behavior. Longitudinal studies are needed to establish whether aberrant glutamatergic metabolism corresponds to acute or chronic suicide risk. Glutamatergic biomarkers may be promising targets for novel risk assessment and interventional strategies for suicidal ideation and behavior.

The Self and its World: A Neuro-Ecological and Temporo-Spatial Account of Existential Fear

The current international crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is having a strong psychological impact on our subjectivities. We are constantly threatened by the danger of i) being infected, ii) infecting other people, and (iii) by the loss of social relation. Departing from these premises, we here aim to investigate the psychological and neurodynamics of this complex phenomenon. First, we discuss about recent psychological and neuronal findings on fear and its disorders, related to an unbalanced intero-exteroceptive processing and emotional regulation. Secondly we move to the psychological and neuronal dynamics of self and others characterized by a temporo-spatial alignment with the world. Due to the neural overlap of emotion and self and the deep-reaching neuro-ecological layers of self, emotional feelings like fear and anxiety cannot be detached and dissociated from the world; they signify the world–brain relation, and, more specifically, our self-other relation. The deepest neuro-ecological and neuro-social layers of self are threatened by the loss of subjectivity, which is manifest in our loss of body and thus the fear of dying, and the loss of intersubjectivity that surfaces in our fear of infecting others, which reflect the intimate anchorage of the self with the world. In our opinion the pandemic of COVID-19 deeply affect our sense of self and its spatio-temporal neuronal dynamics providing the prerequisites for the manifestation of fear and existential anxiety, thus disrupting the brain-world relation with significant repercussions on our psyche and on our daily lives.

Stability or Plasticity? - A Hierarchical Allostatic Regulation Model of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Function for Social Valuation

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has long been recognized as the key component of the neurocircuitry involved in various social as well as non-social behaviors, however, little is known regarding the organizing principle of distinctive subregions in the mPFC that integrates a wide range of mPFC functions. The present study proposes a hierarchical model of mPFC functionality, where three functionally dissociable subregions, namely, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), rostromedial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC), and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), are differentially involved in computing values of decision-making. According to this model, the mPFC subregions interact with each other in such a way that more dorsal regions utilize additional external sensory information from environment to predict and prevent conflicts occurring in more ventral regions tuned to internal bodily signals, thereby exerting the hierarchically organized allostatic regulatory control over homeostatic reflexes. This model also emphasizes the role of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) in arbitrating the transitions between different thalamo-cortical loops, detecting conflicts between competing options for decision-making, and in shifting flexibly between decision modes. The hierarchical architecture of the mPFC working in conjunction with the TRN may play a key role in adjusting the internal (bodily) needs to suit the constraints of external (environmental) variables better, thus effectively addressing the stability-plasticity dilemma.

The Neural Correlates of Impaired Self-Monitoring Among Individuals With Neurodegenerative Dementias

Self-monitoring is a crucial component of human empathy and necessary for the formation and repair of social relations. Several studies have brought to light possible neuronal substrates associated with self-monitoring, but the information that they have provided is inconclusive. The authors, therefore, studied a large group of patients with dementia to assess what brain structures are necessary for the self-monitoring function.Methods: Seventy-seven patients with dementia of various types were screened using voxel-based morphometry to assess possible volume reduction in the brain structures of patients with self-monitoring problems, and the decrease of socioemotional expressiveness and modification of self-presentation was estimated using the Revised Self-Monitoring Scale. Regression analysis was employed to investigate the correlation between gray matter loss and deficient self-monitoring.Results: The socioemotional expressiveness scores were associated with decreased gray matter volume in the right olfactory cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, superior temporal pole, parahippocampal gyrus, insula, and medial temporal gyrus bilaterally. Self-presentation scores were associated with bilateral gray matter volume reduction in the olfactory cortex, insula, rectus gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus, right superior temporal pole, and parahippocampal gyrus, as well as the left medial temporal gyrus and anterior superior frontal gyrus.Conclusions: These results suggest that patients with dementia present decreased ability of self-monitoring, probably due to impaired insula and orbitofrontal cortex and their disconnection from structures of the salience network.

Quality of life is related to the functional connectivity of the default mode network at rest

Quality of life is an important issue concerning people all over the world and affecting patients in the mental health field. When considering the potential neural links between quality of life and the brain, a brain network that comes into mind is the default mode network (DMN). Its architecture and function has been investigated in relation to various research fields including social and emotional cognition, meditation and neuropsychiatric disorders as well as happiness. In this cross-sectional study we investigated the relationship between various quality of life domains (physiological, psychological, social and environmental) and the functional connectivity of the default mode network at rest in a sample of 42 healthy working female managers. The results indicate that there is a significant association between the social quality of life domain and the functional connectivity of the default mode network. Post-hoc analysis revealed that high social quality of life scores were associated with right-left lateral parietal hypoconnectivity. By adopting a wide ranging perspective, our study approaches to fundamental research about quality of life but so far only applied on a female subgroup. As far as we know, it is the first to analyze the neuronal correlates of quality of life in the brain and therefore sets an initial step in its investigation.

The Effect of Meditation on Comprehension of Statements About One-Self and Others: A Pilot ERP and Behavioral Study

The main goal of this study was to examine the effect of long-term meditation practice on behavioral indicators and ERP peak characteristics during an error-recognition task, where participants were presented with emotionally negative (evoking anxiety or aggression) written sentences describing self-related or non-self-related emotional state and personality traits. In total, 200 sentences written in Russian with varying emotional coloring were presented during the task, with half of the sentences containing a grammatical error that the participants were asked to identify. The EEG was recorded in age-matched control individuals (n = 17) and two groups of Samatha meditators with relatively short- (3–5 years’ experience, n = 18) and long-term (10–30 years’ experience, n = 18) practice experience. Task performance time (TPT) and accuracy of error detection (AED) were chosen as behavioral values. Amplitude, time latency and cortical distribution of P300 and P600 peaks of ERP were used as a value of speech-related brain activity. All statistical effects of meditation were estimated, controlling for age and sex. No behavioral differences between two groups of meditators were found. General TPT was shorter for both groups of meditators compared to the control group. Non-meditators reacted significantly slower to sentences about aggression than to sentences about anxiety or non-emotional sentences, whereas no significance was found between meditator groups. Non-meditators had better AED for the sentences about one-self than for the sentences about other people, whereas the meditators did not show any significant difference. The amplitude of P300 peak in frontal and left temporal scalp regions was higher for long-term meditators in comparison with both intermediate and control groups. The latency of P300 and P600 in left frontal and temporal regions positively correlated with TPT, whereas the amplitude of P300 in these regions had a negative correlation with TPT. We demonstrate that long-term meditation practice increases the ability of an individual to process negative emotional stimuli. The differences in behavioral reactions after onset of negative information that was self-related and non-self-related, which is typical for non-meditators, disappeared due to the influence of meditation. ERP results could be interpreted as a value of increase in voluntary control over emotional state during meditational practice.

Group membership dictates the neural correlates of social optimism biases

Optimism bias, i.e. expecting the future to hold more desirable than undesirable outcomes, also extends to people that we like or admire. However, it remains unknown how the brain generates this social optimism bias. In this study, respondents estimated the likelihood of future desirable and undesirable outcomes for an in-group and three out-groups: warm-incompetent, cold-competent, and cold-incompetent. We found a strong social optimism bias for the in-group and the warm out-group and an inverted pattern for the cold-incompetent out-group. For all groups, scores of social optimism bias correlated with the brain activity in structures that respondents differentially engaged depending on the target social group. In line with our hypotheses, evaluating the in-group recruited the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex, whereas evaluating the warm out-group engaged the posterior insula, mid cingulate cortex, and somatosensory cortices. These findings suggest different underlying cognitive mechanisms of social optimism bias for these groups, despite similar behavioural patterns. Thinking about the cold out-groups recruited the right anterior temporal lobe, and temporoparietal junction. Evaluating the cold-incompetent out-group additionally recruited the anterior insula, inferior frontal cortex and dorsomedial frontal cortex. We discuss these neuroimaging findings with respect to their putative cognitive functions.

Functional MRI reveals evidence of a self-positivity bias in the medial prefrontal cortex during the comprehension of social vignettes

A large literature in social neuroscience has associated the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) with the processing of self-related information. However, only recently have social neuroscience studies begun to consider the large behavioral literature showing a strong self-positivity bias, and these studies have mostly focused on its correlates during self-related judgments and decision-making. We carried out a functional MRI (fMRI) study to ask whether the mPFC would show effects of the self-positivity bias in a paradigm that probed participants’ self-concept without any requirement of explicit self-judgment. We presented social vignettes that were either self-relevant or non-self-relevant with a neutral, positive or negative outcome described in the second sentence. In previous work using event-related potentials, this paradigm has shown evidence of a self-positivity bias that influences early stages of semantically processing incoming stimuli. In the present fMRI study, we found evidence for this bias within the mPFC: an interaction between self-relevance and valence, with only positive scenarios showing a self vs other effect within the mPFC. We suggest that the mPFC may play a role in maintaining a positively biased self-concept and discuss the implications of these findings for the social neuroscience of the self and the role of the mPFC.

Neural responses for evaluating self and mother traits in adolescence depend on mother-adolescent relationships

An important task in adolescence is to achieve autonomy while preserving a positive relationship with parents. Previous fMRI studies showed largely overlapping activation in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) for evaluating self and close-other traits but separable activation for self and non-close other. Possibly, more similar mPFC activation reflects closeness or warmth in relationships. We investigated neural indicators of the mother–adolescent relationship in adolescents between 11 and 21 years (N = 143). Mother–adolescent relationship was measured using (i) mothers’ and adolescents’ trait evaluations about each other, (ii) observations of warmth, negativity and emotional support in mother–adolescent conversation and (iii) similarity in adolescents’ neural activation for evaluating self vs mother traits. Results showed relatively more similar mPFC activation in adolescents who evaluated their mothers’ traits more positively, suggesting that this is possibly a neural indicator of mother–adolescent relationship quality. Furthermore, mid-adolescence was characterized by more negative mother–adolescent interaction compared to early and late adolescence. This effect co-occurred with mid-adolescent peaks in dorsal striatum, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and superior temporal sulcus activation in evaluating traits of self vs mother. These results suggest more negative relationships and stronger self-focus in mid-adolescence.

Prioritised self-referential processing is modulated by emotional arousal

Stimuli related to the self are processed more efficiently in a variety of cognitive tasks. Recent studies have shown that this self-referential processing bias is modulated by emotion. However, a clear understanding of how emotional valence and arousal affect self-referential processing is still lacking. With a label-shape matching task, Experiment 1 measured a self-prioritisation effect in four different mood states. The results revealed stronger self-prioritisation effects in moods with higher arousal levels and a reliable correlation between the self-prioritisation effect and the arousal level reported by the participants; however, the effect of emotional valence was not statistically reliable. Experiment 2 further showed that alerting cues, known to raise arousal level, effectively increased the self-prioritisation effect in the same label-shape matching task. Experiment 3 clarified that alerting cues do not affect reward processing in a similar label-shape matching task, suggesting that arousal may selectively modulate self-referential processing. These observations provide clear evidence that emotional arousal modulates self-referential processing.

Abnormal Connectivity Within Anterior Cortical Midline Structures in Bipolar Disorder: Evidence From Integrated MRI and Functional MRI

Background: Aberrant functional and structural connectivity across multiple brain networks have been reported in bipolar disorder (BD). However, most previous studies consider the functional and structural alterations in isolation regardless of their possible integrative relationship. The present study aimed to identify the brain connectivity alterations in BD by capturing the latent nexus in multimodal neuroimaging data. Methods: Structural and resting-state images were acquired from 83 patients with BD and 94 healthy controls (HCs). Combined with univariate methods conducted to detect the dysconnectivity in BD, we also employed a semi-multimodal fusion framework fully utilizing the interrelationship between the two modalities to distinguish patients from HCs. Moreover, one-way analysis of variance was adopted to explore whether the detected dysconnectivity has differences across stages of patients with BD. Results: The semi-multimodal fusion framework distinguished patients from HCs with 81.47% accuracy, 85.42% specificity, and 74.75% sensitivity. The connection between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and superior medial prefrontal cortex (sMPFC) contributed the most to BD diagnosis. Consistently, the univariate method also identified that this ACC-sMPFC functional connection significantly decreased in BD patients compared to HCs, and the significant order of the dysconnectivity is: depressive episode < HCs and remission episode < HCs. Conclusions: Our findings, by adopting univariate and multivariate analysis methods, shed light on the decoupling within the anterior midline brain in the pathophysiology of BD, and this decoupling may serve as a trait marker for this disease.

Rumination and the default mode network: Meta-analysis of brain imaging studies and implications for depression

Rumination is strongly and consistently correlated with depression. Although multiple studies have explored the neural correlates of rumination, findings have been inconsistent and the mechanisms underlying rumination remain elusive. Functional brain imaging studies have identified areas in the default mode network (DMN) that appear to be critically involved in ruminative processes. However, a meta-analysis to synthesize the findings of brain regions underlying rumination is currently lacking. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis consisting of experimental tasks that investigate rumination by using Signed Differential Mapping of 14 fMRI studies comprising 286 healthy participants. Furthermore, rather than treat the DMN as a unitary network, we examined the contribution of three DMN subsystems to rumination. Results confirm the suspected association between rumination and DMN activation, specifically implicating the DMN core regions and the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex subsystem. Based on these findings, we suggest a hypothesis of how DMN regions support rumination and present the implications of this model for treating major depressive disorder characterized by rumination.

The Aachen List of Trait Words

In this study, we present the Aachen List of Trait Words (ALoT), including a total of 606 German adjectives with English translations, describing personality traits. The lack of ratings regarding the social desirability of traits led us to create a German trait database. Ratings of valence and social desirability were obtained from 100 participants. Statistical analyses of 99 participants indicated that valence and social desirability ratings were strongly correlated. However, there are several words showing a weak or no relationship. Furthermore, uncommon words were rated less positively (or desirable) than more common traits. Word frequency and word length were positively correlated, showing that short terms were more common than long ones. Social desirability and valence ratings are presented together with several psycholinguistic variables known to influence word processing (e.g. word length) in the ALoT. Scores for each word are provided as supplemental materials. The ALoT is intended to provide stimulus material for experiments dealing with the affective processing of German trait adjectives.

Valence and ownership: object desirability influences self-prioritization

Research has demonstrated that possession exerts a potent influence on stimulus processing, such that objects are categorized more rapidly when owned-by-self than when they belong to other people. Outstanding theoretical questions remain, however, regarding the extent of this self-prioritization effect. In particular, does ownership enhance the processing of objects regardless of their valence or is self-prioritization restricted to only desirable items? To address this issue, here we explored the speed with which participants categorized objects (i.e., desirable and undesirable posters) that ostensibly belonged to the self and a best friend. In addition, to identify the cognitive processes supporting task performance, data were submitted to a hierarchical drift-diffusion model (HDDM) analysis. The results revealed a self-prioritization effect (i.e., RT_self < RT_friend) for desirable posters that was underpinned by differences in the efficiency of stimulus processing. Specifically, decisional evidence was extracted more rapidly from self-owned posters when they were desirable than undesirable, an effect that was reversed for friend-owned posters. These findings advance understanding of when and how valence influences self-prioritization during decisional processing.

The neural correlates of academic self-concept in adolescence and the relation to making future-oriented academic choices

This study examined the role of brain regions involved in academic self-evaluation in relation to problems with study orientation. For this purpose, 48 participants between ages 14-20 years evaluated themselves on academic traits sentences in an fMRI session. In addition, participants completed an orientation to study choice questionnaire, evaluated the importance of academic traits, and completed a reading and shortened IQ test as an index of cognitive performance. Behavioral results showed that academic self-evaluations were a more important predictor for problems with study orientation compared to subjective academic importance or academic performance. On a neural level, we found that individual differences in the positivity of academic self-evaluations were reflected in increased precuneus activity. Moreover, precuneus activity mediated the relation between academic self positivity and problems with study orientation. Together, these findings support the importance of studying academic self-concept and its neural correlates in the educational decision-making process.

Neural substrates of self- and external-preoccupation: A voxel-based morphometry study

INTRODUCTION

Self- and external-preoccupation have been linked to psychopathological states. The neural substrates underlying self- and external-preoccupation remain unclear. In the present study, we aim to provide insight into the information-processing mechanisms associated with self- and external-preoccupation at the structural level.

METHODS

To investigate the neural substrates of self- and external-preoccupation, we acquired high-resolution T1-weighted structural images and Preoccupation Scale scores from 1,122 young subjects. Associations between regional gray matter volume (rGMV) and Preoccupation Scale subscores for self- and external-preoccupation were estimated using voxel-based morphometry.

RESULTS

Significant positive associations between self-preoccupation and rGMV were observed in widespread brain areas such as the bilateral precuneus and posterior cingulate gyri, structures known to be associated with self-triggered self-reference during rest. Significant negative associations between external-preoccupation and rGMV were observed only in the bilateral cerebellum, regions known to be associated with behavioral addiction, sustained attention, and reward system.

CONCLUSION

Our results reveal distinct neural substrates for self- and external-preoccupation at the structural level.

Functional dysconnectivity within the emotion-regulating system is associated with affective symptoms in major depressive disorder: A resting-state fMRI study

OBJECTIVE

Major depressive disorder (MDD) can be characterized as a multidimensional and system-level disorder. The neuropathophysiological abnormalities have been reported to be distributed in emotion regulation system, involving the prefrontal cortex (PFC), limbic and striatum in convergent studies. Decrease of positive affect and increase of negative affect are recognized as a hallmark of MDD. However, the dysfunctions in affective processing in MDD within the emotion regulation system remains largely unclear. In this study, our goals are to characterize the dysconnectivity pattern within this system and explore the relationships between this kind of dysconnectivity pattern and affective symptoms, which might help us better look into the neuropathophysiological mechanisms underlying MDD.

METHODS

A total of 34 MDD and 34 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI). The alterations in functional connectivity (FC) within the emotion regulation system and their relationships with affective symptoms were explored.

RESULTS

Compared with HCs, MDD patients showed aberrant FC within this system. Importantly, deceased FC was mainly involved in the prefrontal-limbic system, while elevated FC was observed in the prefrontal-striatum system. In the MDD group, decreased FC of right posterior hippocampus-left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) was negatively associated with the negative affect scores and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores and the FC of left ventral striatum-left dlPFC was significantly negatively related with the positive affect scores.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrated that MDD showed characteristic pathological alterations of the emotion regulation system. Dysconnectivity within prefrontal-limbic system might be more related to the dysregulation of negative affect, whereas dysconnectivity within prefrontal-striatum system might influence more on positive affect processing. The decrease in positive affect and increase in negative affect in MDD might have different pathological basis. These results could help better understand the dysconnectivity pattern in the emotion-regulating system underlying depression.

How females think about themselves and how they assume that significant others think about them: The influence of perspective taking on self-referential processing

People maintain a positive self-concept through positive self-appraisals (Self-Serving Bias Effect, SSBE) and a diminished memory for self-threatening information (Mnemic-Neglect Effect, MNE). Other people also influence a person’s self-concept. This study investigated SSBE and MNE in 60 females by using a trait-judgment paradigm applying two perspectives (self- and third-person appraisals) and a recall task. Additionally, self-esteem was assessed as an associated factor. SSBE and MNE were found in both kinds of appraisal perspectives. Interestingly, participants saw themselves as even more positive in reflected appraisals. SSBE and self-esteem were associated only in self-appraisals, indicating a larger SSBE on self-appraisals with raising self-esteem. In conclusion, both what females think about themselves and how they assume that others think about them preserve their overall positive self-concept.

Neural reward response to substance-free activity images in opiate use disorder patients with depressive symptoms

BACKGROUND

Deficits in the ability to experience reward from natural, substance-free activities and stimuli is a common mechanism contributing to both opiate use disorder and depressive symptoms, and is a target of behavioral-focused treatments for substance use and depression. Although the neural response to monetary, positive affect-eliciting and social images has been investigated, the neural response to images representing substance-free activity engagement remains untested. The current study tested the neural response to anticipation and receipt of substance-free activity engagement images and monetary reward in opiate use disorder patients with elevated depressive symptoms compared to healthy controls.

METHODS

Sixteen male opiate use disorder detoxification patients with elevated depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) ≥ 14) (OUDD M_age = 32.19 years, SD = 8.17 years) and seventeen male healthy controls (BDI-II < 14) (HC: M_age = 26.82 years, SD = 5.29 years) completed the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) and newly developed Activity Incentive Delay (AID) tasks. Within- and between-group whole-brain contrasts tested activation during anticipation ([reward]-[non-reward]) and receipt ([win]-[non-win]) of substance-free activity image, monetary, and substance-free activity relative to monetary (AID-MID), reward.

RESULTS

OUDD demonstrated significantly lower activation in reward regions during anticipation and significantly greater activation during receipt of substance-free activity image reward compared to HC. OUDD demonstrated significantly lower activation during anticipation of substance-free activity reward relative to monetary reward, compared to HC.

CONCLUSIONS

The observed reduction in frontostriatal response to reward anticipation of substance-free activity engagement images in OUDD, yet increased neural response to reward receipt, supports theory linking reductions in reward processing with deficits in motivation for substance-free activity engagement.

Neural Correlates of Reflection on Present and Past Selves in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Previous studies indicate that autobiographical memory is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Successful recollection of information referring to one’s own person requires the intact ability to re-activate representation of the past self. In the current fMRI study we investigated process of conscious reflection on the present self, the past self, and a close-other in the ASD and typically developing groups. Significant inter-group differences were found in the Past-Self condition. In individuals with ASD, reflection on the past self was associated with additional engagement of the posterior cingulate and posterior temporal structures. We hypothesize that this enhanced activation of widely distributed neural network reflects substantial difficulties in processes of reflection on one’s own person in the past.

Optimism for the Future in Younger and Older Adults

OBJECTIVES

Research has suggested that older adults are less optimistic about their future than younger adults; however, a limitation of prior studies is that younger and older adults were forecasting to different ages and stages of life. To address this, we investigated whether there are age differences in future optimism when people project to the exact same age. We also tested whether optimism differs when projecting one's own future versus another person's future.

METHOD

Participants were 285 younger and 292 older adults recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed writing and word-rating tasks in which they imagined their own future in 15 years, their own future at age 85, or the average person's future at age 85.

RESULTS

Younger adults were more optimistic than older adults about their own future in 15 years. In contrast, both age groups were similarly optimistic about their future at age 85 and expected it to be more positive than others' future at age 85.

DISCUSSION

Contrary to previous research, younger and older adults had comparable future forecasts when projecting to the exact same age. These findings emphasize the need to consider age and stage of life when examining age differences in future optimism.

Fusing Mobile Phone Sensing and Brain Imaging to Assess Depression in College Students

As smartphone usage has become increasingly prevalent in our society, so have rates of depression, particularly among young adults. Individual differences in smartphone usage patterns have been shown to reflect individual differences in underlying affective processes such as depression (Wang et al., 2018). In the current study, a positive relationship was identified between smartphone screen time (e.g., phone unlock duration) and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the subgenual cingulate cortex (sgCC), a brain region implicated in depression and antidepressant treatment response, and regions of the ventromedial/orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), such that increased phone usage was related to stronger connectivity between these regions. This cluster was subsequently used to constrain subsequent analyses looking at individual differences in depressive symptoms in the same cohort and observed partial replication in a separate cohort. Similar analyses were subsequently performed on metrics of circadian rhythm consistency showing a negative relationship between connectivity of the sgCC and OFC. The data and analyses presented here provide relatively simplistic preliminary analyses which replicate and provide an initial step in combining functional brain activity and smartphone usage patterns to better understand issues related to mental health. Smartphones are a prevalent part of modern life and the usage of mobile sensing data from smartphones promises to be an important tool for mental health diagnostics and neuroscience research.

Phenomenal, bodily and brain correlates of fictional reappraisal as an implicit emotion regulation strategy

The ability to modulate our emotional experience, depending on our current goal and context, is of critical importance for adaptive behavior. This ability encompasses various emotion regulation strategies, such as fictional reappraisal, at stake whenever one engages in fictional works (e.g., movies, books, video games, virtual environments). Neuroscientific studies investigating the distinction between the processing of real and fictional entities have reported the involvement of brain structures related to self-relevance and emotion regulation, suggesting a threefold interaction between the appraisal of reality, aspects of the Self, and emotions. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of implicit fictional reappraisal on different components of emotion, as well as on the modulatory role of autobiographical and conceptual self-relevance. While recording electrodermal, cardiac, and brain activity (EEG), we presented negative and neutral pictures to 33 participants, describing them as either real or fictional. After each stimulus, the participants reported their subjective emotional experience, self-relevance of the stimuli, as well as their agreement with their description. Using the Bayesian mixed-modeling framework, we showed that stimuli presented as fictional, compared with real, were subjectively appraised as less intense and less negative, and elicited lower skin conductance response, stronger heart-rate deceleration, and lower late positive potential amplitudes. Finally, these phenomenal and physiological changes did, to a moderate extent, rely on variations of specific aspects of self-relevance. Implications for the neuroscientific study of implicit emotion regulation are discussed.

Neural correlates of developing theory of mind competence in early childhood

Theory of mind (ToM) encompasses a range of abilities that show different developmental time courses. However, relatively little work has examined the neural correlates of ToM during early childhood. In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of ToM in typically developing children aged 4-8 years using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We calculated whole-brain functional connectivity with the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ), a core region involved in ToM, and examined its relation to children's early, basic, and advanced components of ToM competence assessed by a parent-report measure. Total ToM and both basic and advanced ToM components, but not early, consistently showed a positive correlation with connectivity between RTPJ and posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus; advanced ToM was also correlated with RTPJ to left TPJ connectivity. However, early and advanced ToM components showed negative correlation with the right inferior/superior parietal lobe, suggesting that RTPJ network differentiation is also related to ToM abilities. We confirmed and extended these results using a Bayesian modeling approach demonstrating significant relations between multiple nodes of the mentalizing network and ToM abilities, with no evidence for differences in relations between ToM components. Our data provide new insights into the neural correlates of multiple aspects of ToM in early childhood and may have implications for both typical and atypical development of ToM.

The Neural Representation of Relational- and Collective-Self: Two Forms of Collectivism

The collectivism can be divided into two forms: relational collectivism and group collectivism. According to the cognitive representation of self, relational collectivism emphasizes the relational-self and group collectivism privileges the collective-self. However, it remains uncertain whether there is a difference between relational-self and collective-self under Chinese collectivism cultural. To address the above issue, the present study examined the neural representation of relational-self and collective-self during trait judgment tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results showed that relational-self-reference compared with collective-self-reference generated stronger medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) activity, indicating relational-self was more closeness and important in the self-concept than collective-self under East Asian cultural background. Relational-self and collective-self are unequally represented in the MPFC, providing direct neural evidence that the collectivism in China can be divided into relational collectivism and group collectivism.

The functional role of ventral anterior cingulate cortex in social evaluation: disentangling valence from subjectively rewarding opportunities

Despite robust associations between the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC) and social evaluation, the role of vACC in social evaluation remains poorly understood. Two hypotheses have emerged from existing research: detection of positive valence and detection of opportunities for subjective reward. It has been difficult to understand whether one or both hypotheses are supported because previous research conflated positive valence with subjective reward. Therefore, the current functional magnetic resonance imaging study drew on a social evaluation paradigm that disentangled positive valence and subjective reward. Participants evaluated in-group and out-group politicians in a social evaluation paradigm that crossed trait valence with opportunity for subjectively rewarding affirmation (i.e. a chance to affirm positive traits about in-group politicians and affirm negative traits about out-group politicians). Participants rated in-group politicians more positively and out-group politicians more negatively. One subregion of vACC was modulated by positive valence and another relatively posterior region of vACC was modulated by opportunity for subjective reward (i.e. a politician × valence interaction). The current findings demonstrate the importance of incorporating vACC function into models of social cognition and provide new avenues for sharpening our understanding of the psychological significance of vACC function in social evaluation and related domains such as reward and affect.

Neural self-representation in autistic women and association with 'compensatory camouflaging'

Prior work has revealed sex/gender-dependent autistic characteristics across behavioural and neural/biological domains. It remains unclear whether and how neural sex/gender differences are related to behavioural sex/gender differences in autism. Here, we examined whether atypical neural responses during mentalizing and self-representation are sex/gender-dependent in autistic adults and explored whether ‘camouflaging’ (acting as if behaviourally neurotypical) is associated with sex/gender-dependent neural responses. In total, N = 119 adults (33 typically developing males, 29 autistic males, 29 typically developing females and 28 autistic females) participated in a task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm to assess neural activation within right temporo-parietal junction and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during mentalizing and self-representation. Camouflaging in autism was quantified as the discrepancy between extrinsic behaviour in social–interpersonal contexts and intrinsic status. While autistic men showed hypoactive right temporo-parietal junction mentalizing and ventromedial prefrontal cortex self-representation responses compared to typically developing men, such neural responses in autistic women were not different from typically developing women. In autistic women only, increasing camouflaging was associated with heightened ventromedial prefrontal cortex self-representation response. There is a lack of impaired neural self-representation and mentalizing in autistic women compared to typically developing women. Camouflaging is heightened in autistic women and may relate to neural self-representation response. These results reveal brain-behaviour relations that help explain sex/gender-heterogeneity in social brain function in autism.

Is Our Self Related to Personality? A Neuropsychodynamic Model

The concept and the assessment of personality have been extensively discussed in psychoanalysis and in clinical psychology over the years. Nowadays there is large consensus in considering the constructs of the self and relatedness as central criterions to assess the personality and its disturbances. However, the relation between the psychological organization of personality, the construct of the self, and its neuronal correlates remain unclear. Based on the recent empirical data on the neural correlates of the self (and others), on the importance of early relational and attachment experiences, and on the relation with the brain's spontaneous/resting state activity (rest-self overlap/containment), we propose here a multilayered model of the self with: (i) relational alignment; (ii) self-constitution; (iii) self-manifestation; and (iv) self-expansion. Importantly, these different layers of the self can be characterized by different neuronal correlates-this results in different neuronally grounded configurations or organizations of personality. These layers correspond to different levels of personality organization, such as psychotic (as related to the layer of self-constitution), borderline (as related to the layer of self-manifestation) and neurotic (as related to the layer of self-expansion). Taken together, we provide here for the first time a neurobiologically and clinically grounded model of personality organization, which carries major psychodynamic and neuroscientific implications. The study of the spontaneous activity of the brain, intrinsically related to the self (rest-self overlap/containment) and the interaction with stimuli (rest-stimulus interaction) may represent a further advance in understanding how our default state plays a crucial role in navigating through the internal world and the external reality.

Decoding the neural representation of self and person knowledge with multivariate pattern analysis and data-driven approaches

Multivariate pattern analysis and data-driven approaches to understand how the human brain encodes sensory information and higher level conceptual knowledge have become increasingly dominant in visual and cognitive neuroscience; however, it is only in recent years that these methods have been applied to the domain of social information processing. This review examines recent research in the field of social cognitive neuroscience focusing on how multivariate pattern analysis (e.g., pattern classification, representational similarity analysis) and data-driven methods (e.g., reverse correlation, intersubject correlation) have been used to decode and characterize high-level information about the self, other persons, and social groups. We begin with a review of what is known about how self-referential processing and person perception are represented in the medial prefrontal cortex based on conventional activation-based neuroimaging approaches. This is followed by a nontechnical overview of current multivariate pattern-based and data-driven neuroimaging methods designed to characterize and/or decode neural representations. The remainder of the review focuses on examining how these methods have been applied to the topic of self, person perception, and the perception of social groups. In this review, we highlight recent trends (e.g., analysis of social networks, decoding race and social groups, and the use of naturalistic stimuli) and discuss several theoretical challenges that arise from the application of these new methods to the question of how the brain represents knowledge about the self and others. This article is categorized under: Neuroscience > Cognition.

Reward-related regions form a preferentially coupled system at rest

Neuroimaging studies have implicated a set of striatal and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) regions that are commonly activated during reward processing tasks. Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) studies have demonstrated that the human brain is organized into several functional systems that show strong temporal coherence in the absence of goal-directed tasks. Here we use seed-based and graph-theory RSFC approaches to characterize the systems-level organization of putative reward regions of at rest. Peaks of connectivity from seed-based RSFC patterns for the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) were used to identify candidate reward regions which were merged with a previously used set of regions (Power et al., 2011). Graph-theory was then used to determine system-level membership for all regions. Several regions previously implicated in reward-processing (NAcc, lateral and medial OFC, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex) comprised a distinct, preferentially coupled system. This RSFC system is stable across a range of connectivity thresholds and shares strong overlap with meta-analyses of task-based reward studies. This reward system shares between-system connectivity with systems implicated in cognitive control and self-regulation, including the fronto-parietal, cingulo-opercular, and default systems. Differences may exist in the pathways through which control systems interact with reward system components. Whereas NAcc is functionally connected to cingulo-opercular and default systems, OFC regions show stronger connectivity with the fronto-parietal system. We propose that future work may be able to interrogate group or individual differences in connectivity profiles using the regions delineated in this work to explore potential relationships to appetitive behaviors, self-regulation failure, and addiction.

An fMRI investigation of the neural correlates underlying the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)

Introduction : The "autonomous sensory meridian response" (ASMR) is a neologism used to describe an internal sensation of deep relaxation and pleasant head tingling which is often stimulated by gentle sounds, light touch, and personal attention. Methods : An fMRI-based methodology was employed to examine the brain activation of subjects prescreened for ASMR-receptivity (n=10) as they watched ASMR videos and identified specific moments of relaxation and tingling. Results : Subjects who experienced ASMR showed significant activation in regions associated with both reward (NAcc) and emotional arousal (dACC and Insula/IFG). Brain activation during ASMR showed similarities to patterns previously observed in musical frisson as well as affiliative behaviors. Conclusion : This is the first study to measure the activation of various brain regions during ASMR and these results may help to reveal the mechanistic underpinnings of this sensation.

Attention Bias in Rumination and Depression: Cognitive Mechanisms and Brain Networks

Depressed individuals exhibit biased attention to negative emotional information. However, much remains unknown about (1) the neurocognitive mechanisms of attention bias (e.g., qualities of negative information that evoke attention bias, or functional brain network dynamics that may reflect a propensity for biased attention) and (2) distinctions in the types of attention bias related to different dimensions of depression (e.g., ruminative depression). Here, in 50 women, clinical depression was associated with facilitated processing of negative information only when such information was self-descriptive and task-relevant. However, among depressed individuals, trait rumination was associated with biases towards negative self-descriptive information regardless of task goals, especially when negative self-descriptive material was paired with self-referential images that should be ignored. Attention biases in ruminative depression were mediated by dynamic variability in frontoinsular resting-state functional connectivity. These findings highlight potential cognitive and functional network mechanisms of attention bias specifically related to the ruminative dimension of depression.

Integration and Segregation of Default Mode Network Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Transition-Age Males with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Proof-of-Concept Study

The aim of this study is to assess the resting-state functional connectivity (RsFc) profile of the default mode network (DMN) in transition-age males with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Resting-state blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from adolescent and young adult males with high-functioning ASD (n = 15) and from age-, sex-, and intelligence quotient-matched healthy controls (HCs; n = 16). The DMN was examined by assessing the positive and negative RsFc correlations of an average of the literature-based conceptualized major DMN nodes (medial prefrontal cortex [mPFC], posterior cingulate cortex, bilateral angular, and inferior temporal gyrus regions). RsFc data analysis was performed using a seed-driven approach. ASD was characterized by an altered pattern of RsFc in the DMN. The ASD group exhibited a weaker pattern of intra- and extra-DMN-positive and -negative RsFc correlations, respectively. In ASD, the strength of intra-DMN coupling was significantly reduced with the mPFC and the bilateral angular gyrus regions. In addition, the polarity of the extra-DMN correlation with the right hemispheric task-positive regions of fusiform gyrus and supramarginal gyrus was reversed from typically negative to positive in the ASD group. A wide variability was observed in the presentation of the RsFc profile of the DMN in both HC and ASD groups that revealed a distinct pattern of subgrouping using pattern recognition analyses. These findings imply that the functional architecture profile of the DMN is altered in ASD with weaker than expected integration and segregation of DMN RsFc. Future studies with larger sample sizes are warranted.

Neural representations of the multidimensional self in the cortical midline structures

Self-concept consists of self-identity that distinguishes self from other people and knowledge that describes one's own attributes in different dimensions. Because self-concept plays a fundamental role in individuals' social functioning and mental health, behavioral studies have examined cognitive processes of self-identity and self-knowledge extensively. Nevertheless, how different dimensions of the self-concept are organized in multi-voxel neural patterns remains elusive. Here, we address this issue by employing representational similarity analyses of behavioral/theoretical models of multidimensional self-representation and blood oxygen level dependent responses, recorded using functional MRI, to judgments of personality traits, physical attributes and social roles of oneself, a close (one's mother) other, and a distant (celebrity) other. The multivoxel patterns of neural activities in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) distinguished representations of the self from both close and distant others, suggesting a specific neural representation of the self-identity; and distinguished different dimensions of person knowledge of oneself, indicating dimension-sensitive neural representation of the self. Moreover, the pattern of PCC activity is more strongly coupled with dimensions of self-knowledge than self-identity. Our findings suggest that multivoxel neural patterns of the cortical midline structures distinguish not only self from others but also discriminate different dimensions of the self.

Disentangling the Neural Basis of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Psychiatric Disorders: A Focus on Depression

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) stands among the most frequent psychiatric disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be effective for treating depression, yet its neural mechanisms of action are not well elucidated. The objective of this work is to assess the available neuroimaging studies exploring CBT’s effects in adult patients with MDD. Methods: Computerized databases were consulted till April 2018 and a research was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines in order to identify original research articles published at any time in English and French languages on this topic. Results: Seventeen studies were identified. Only one study was randomized comparing CBT to pharmacological interventions, and none included an effective control. Following CBT, changes occurred in cerebral areas that are part of the fronto-limbic system, namely the cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex and amygdala-hippocampal complex. However, the pattern of activation and connectivity in these areas varied across the studies. Conclusion: A considerable heterogeneity exists with regard to study design, adapted CBT type and intensity, and employed neuroimaging paradigms, all of which may partly explain the difference in studies’ outcomes. The lack of randomization and effective controls in most of them makes it difficult to draw formal conclusion whether the observed effects are CBT mediated or due to spontaneous recovery. Despite the observed inconsistencies and dearth of data, CBT appears to exert its anti-depressant effects mainly by modulating the function of affective and cognitive networks devoted to emotions generation and control, respectively. This concept remains to be validated in large scale randomized controlled trials.

Lower self-positivity and its association with self-esteem in women with borderline personality disorder

Self-esteem, the global attitude towards one's self, is low in persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This may be partially due to the ways these persons protect or enhance the self. A case in point is self-positivity, the association of positive rather than negative events, experiences, and objects with the self. Self-esteem and self-positivity may result from either conscious or non-conscious processes. We examined whether low self-esteem is related to low self-positivity in BPD, and whether their covariation is contingent upon conscious processing. We assessed explicit self-esteem via self-report (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) and implicit self-esteem via the Initial Preference Task in women with BPD and healthy control women. We assessed self-positivity in a self-referential processing task, in which participants rated the valence of positive, neutral, and negative nouns, and later recalled them. We manipulated referential context via supraliminal or subliminal priming of self-reference, other-reference, or no reference. Explicit and implicit self-esteem were lower in the BPD group than in the healthy control group. Participants with BPD rated self-referential words less positively, when primes were presented supraliminally. Less positive and slower ratings of positive self-referential words were associated with lower explicit, but not implicit, self-esteem in the BPD group.

Not on my team: Medial prefrontal cortex responses to ingroup fusion and unfair monetary divisions

OBJECTIVE

People are highly attuned to fairness, with people willingly suffering personal costs to prevent others benefitting from unfair acts. Are fairness judgments influenced by group alignments? A new theory posits that we favor ingroups and denigrate members of rival outgroups when our personal identity is fused to a group. Although the mPFC has been separately implicated in group membership and fairness processing, it is unclear whether group alignments affect medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity in response to fairness. Here, we examine the contribution of different regions of the mPFC to processing from ingroup and outgroup members and test whether its response differs depending on how fused we are to an ingroup.

METHODS

Subjects performed rounds of the Ultimatum Game, being offered fair or unfair divisions of money from supporters of the same soccer team (ingroup), the fiercest rival (outgroup) or neutral individuals whilst undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

RESULTS

Strikingly, people willingly suffered personal costs to prevent outgroup members benefitting from both unfair and fair offers. Activity across dorsal and ventral (VMPFC) portions of the mPFC reflected an interaction between fairness and group membership. VMPFC activity in particular was consistent with it coding one's fusion to a group, with the fairness by group membership interaction correlating with the extent that the responder's identity was fused to the ingroup.

CONCLUSIONS

The influence of fusion on social behavior therefore seems to be linked to processing in the VMPFC.

The impact of self-esteem on the preferential processing of self-related information: Electrophysiological correlates of explicit self vs. other evaluation

Preferential processing of self-related information is a well-documented phenomenon on both the behavioral and neural levels. However, the impact of self-esteem on this self-preference has not been studied in a systematic way. Here, the electrophysiological correlates of explicit self-reflection were investigated in individuals with low (LSE) and high self-esteem (HSE). Participants evaluated trait adjectives in reference to the self or to an “other” person (close-other, famous) while EEG was recorded. The analysis of event-related potentials focused on the late positive component (LPC), which exhibits a fronto-central distribution and latency over 500 ms. In both LSE and HSE groups, the amplitudes of LPC were enhanced in the self condition when compared to control conditions (both close-other and famous). Crucially, LPC amplitudes in the HSE group were significantly higher than in the LSE group. Moreover, the self-preference effect, defined as the difference between amplitudes of LPC associated with the evaluation of words in relation to oneself vs. other people, was significantly higher in the HSE group than in the LSE group. Overall, our findings indicate that people with high self-esteem tend to engage in self-referential processing to a higher extent.

Self-Referential Dysfunction and Default-Mode Hyperactivation in Psychophysiological Insomnia Patients

Abstract. Psychophysiological insomnia (PI) is one of the most frequent sleep disorders. In this study we tested whether differences in terms of neural activation are present between a group of PI patients and a healthy-control group while they are exposed to idiosyncratic ruminations and worries, evoked visually by words, so as to explore their hypothetical link with default-mode network (DMN) dysfunction in PI. We recruited five PI patients diagnosed according to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, version 2 (ICSD-2) of American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and five age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Patients were recruited at the outpatient Sleep Medicine Centre of the Coimbra University Hospital Centre. We used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) block-design paradigm where the participants visualized lists of words related to past/present and future concerns and also emotionally neutral words. The results suggested that the PI patients showed a failure of the DMN to deactivate. Moreover, when these patients were exposed to words concerning both past/present ruminations and future worries, there was a pronounced and significant over-recruitment of brain areas related to DMN and self-referential processing when they were compared to healthy volunteers. The differences between the patient and control groups were also evident in self-report measures. In sum, despite the relatively small sample size, our study clearly suggests that in PI there is a dysfunction in brain regions pertaining to self-referential processing, which is corroborated by an overall pattern of hyperarousal in brain regions comprising the DMN. These data may be useful in the improvement of pathophysiological models, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions for insomnia.

An anterior-posterior axis within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex separates self and reward

Although theoretical discourse and experimental studies on the self- and reward-biases have a long tradition, currently we have only a limited understanding of how the biases are represented in the brain and, more importantly, how they relate to each other. We used multi-voxel pattern analysis to test for common representations of self and reward in perceptual matching in healthy human subjects. Voxels across an anterior–posterior axis in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) distinguished (i) self–others and (ii) high–low reward, but cross-generalization between these dimensions decreased from anterior to posterior vmPFC. The vmPFC is characterized by a shift from a common currency for value to independent, distributed representations of self and reward across an anterior–posterior axis. This shift reflected changes in functional connectivity between the posterior part of the vmPFC and the frontal pole when processing self-associated stimuli, and the middle frontal gyrus when processing stimuli associated with high reward. The changes in functional connectivity were correlated with behavioral biases, respectively, to the self and reward. The distinct representations of self and reward in the posterior vmPFC are associated with self- and reward-biases in behavior.

The optimistic brain: Trait optimism mediates the influence of resting-state brain activity and connectivity on anxiety in late adolescence

As a hot research topic in the field of psychology and psychiatry, trait optimism reflects the tendency to expect positive outcomes in the future. Consistent evidence has demonstrated the role of trait optimism in reducing anxiety among different populations. However, less is known about the neural bases of trait optimism and the underlying mechanisms for how trait optimism protects against anxiety in the healthy brain. In this investigation, we examined these issues in 231 healthy adolescent students by assessing resting-state brain activity (i.e., fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, fALFF) and connectivity (i.e., resting-state functional connectivity, RSFC). Whole-brain correlation analyses revealed that higher levels of trait optimism were linked with decreased fALFF in the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and increased RSFC between the right OFC and left supplementary motor cortex (SMC). Mediation analyses further showed that trait optimism mediated the influence of the right OFC activity and the OFC-SMC connectivity on anxiety. Our results remained significant even after excluding the impact of head motion, positive and negative affect and depression. Taken together, this study reveals that fALFF and RSFC are functional neural markers of trait optimism and provides a brain-personality-symptom pathway for protection against anxiety in which fALFF and RSFC affect anxiety through trait optimism.