Three ways in which midline regions contribute to self-evaluation

Self-esteem and cortical thickness correlate with aggression in healthy children: A surface-based analysis

Aggressive behavior can have serious physical, psychological, and social consequences. However, little is known about the personality and neurological antecedents underlying aggressive behavior in children. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-esteem, aggression, and brain structure (i.e., cortical thickness and surface area) in a population of healthy children (N = 78; 9-12 years; mean age: 9.95 ± 0.90 years). The results revealed that self-esteem showed a negative association with aggression and significantly predicted aggressive behavior. No gender differences were found in aggression and its neural correlates. We performed the cortical parcellation method to further explore the neural foundations underlying the association of self-esteem with aggression. Children with higher aggression had increased cortical thickness in four clusters after multiple comparison correction: right medial orbitofrontal cortex, right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, right superior frontal gyrus, and left insula. In a mediation analysis, cortical thickness in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex contributed to the effect of self-esteem on aggression. These findings extend our understanding of morphological correlates of aggression in children, suggesting that an increased cortical thickness in childhood is a potential mechanism linking low self-esteem to aggression.

Whole-brain white matter correlates of personality profiles predictive of subjective well-being

We investigated the white matter correlates of personality profiles predictive of subjective well-being. Using principal component analysis to first determine the possible personality profiles onto which core personality measures would load, we subsequently searched for whole-brain white matter correlations with these profiles. We found three personality profiles that correlated with the integrity of white matter tracts. The correlates of an “optimistic” personality profile suggest (a) an intricate network for self-referential processing that helps regulate negative affect and maintain a positive outlook on life, (b) a sustained capacity for visually tracking rewards in the environment and (c) a motor readiness to act upon the conviction that desired rewards are imminent. The correlates of a “short-term approach behavior” profile was indicative of minimal loss of integrity in white matter tracts supportive of lifting certain behavioral barriers, possibly allowing individuals to act more outgoing and carefree in approaching people and rewards. Lastly, a “long-term approach behavior” profile’s association with white matter tracts suggests lowered sensitivity to transient updates of stimulus-based associations of rewards and setbacks, thus facilitating the successful long-term pursuit of goals. Together, our findings yield convincing evidence that subjective well-being has its manifestations in the brain.

Overlapping and distinct neural correlates of self-evaluations and self-regulation from the perspective of self and others

Prior research has implicated the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in processing evaluations from the perspective of self (self-traits) and evaluations from others (peer feedback), suggesting that these areas form a neural substrate that serves an intertwined function in monitoring self in relation to others. To test this possibility, we examined neural activation overlap in medial and lateral PFC after processing self- and other-informed evaluations. Young adults (age range 18-30-yrs, n = 40) performed two fMRI tasks. The self-concept task involved rating whether positive and negative traits described themselves. The Social Network Aggression Task involved processing positive, neutral or negative feedback from others, with the possibility to retaliate by blasting a loud noise following feedback. The results show that rating positive self traits and receiving positive peer feedback was associated with increased activity in an overlapping region in medial PFC. There were no significant correlations on a behavioral level and medial PFC activity for self-versus-other evaluations. The study further replicated the finding from previous research showing that higher activity in dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) when receiving negative social feedback was associated with reduced noise blast aggression. Finally, during retaliatory responses after receiving positive feedback, participants showed increased activity in the dlPFC. Together these findings suggest that medial PFC is more strongly involved in protecting positive self-views from both internal (self traits) and external (peer feedback) points of view, whereas dlPFC is more strongly involved in regulating retaliatory responses following social rejection, and actively inhibiting aggressive behavior after receiving positive peer feedback.

Neural underpinnings of morality judgment and moral aesthetic judgment

Morality judgment usually refers to the evaluation of moral behavior`s ability to affect others` interests and welfare, while moral aesthetic judgment often implies the appraisal of moral behavior's capability to provide aesthetic pleasure. Both are based on the behavioral understanding. To our knowledge, no study has directly compared the brain activity of these two types of judgments. The present study recorded and analyzed brain activity involved in the morality and moral aesthetic judgments to reveal whether these two types of judgments differ in their neural underpinnings. Results reveled that morality judgment activated the frontal, parietal and occipital cortex previously reported for motor representations of behavior. Evaluation of goodness and badness showed similar patterns of activation in these brain regions. In contrast, moral aesthetic judgment elicited specific activations in the frontal, parietal and temporal cortex proved to be involved in the behavioral intentions and emotions. Evaluation of beauty and ugliness showed similar patterns of activation in these brain regions. Our findings indicate that morality judgment and moral aesthetic judgment recruit different cortical networks that might decode others' behaviors at different levels. These results contribute to further understanding of the essence of the relationship between morality judgment and aesthetic judgment.

Stressed, depressed, and rank obsessed: Individual differences in compassion and neuroticism predispose towards rank-based depressive symptomatology

OBJECTIVES

As social creatures, we monitor our relative rank and/or status with others via social comparisons. Whilst research has identified perceptions of inferiority or 'low rank' relative to others is a robust predictor of depressive, anxious, and stress symptomology, to date individual differences have been ignored. We wish to provide empirical evidence to outline how differences across personality traits may interact with social rank variables to buffer or predispose towards depressive symptomology.

METHODS

Across three independent samples (N = 595), we replicated a social rank model of mental health, and with our third sample (N = 200), we sought to investigate attenuating roles for neuroticism versus compassion with multiple moderated regression models.

RESULTS

Neuroticism predicted greater levels of rank-associated depression, and compassion failed to function as a protective factor for rank-associated depression. However, a closer inspection of the original Big-5 factor structure positions this scale as a measure of 'interpersonal submissiveness' or 'conflict appeasement' rather than genuine compassion.

CONCLUSIONS

Whilst it is necessary to delineate the conditions where compassion is appropriate and able to lead to positive mental health outcomes, we argue this cannot be addressed with the Big-5 measure of trait compassion. We call for future work to consider valid and reliable measures for compassion, such as the self-compassion scale, submissive compassion scale, and fears of compassion scale, to more fully address how compassion may protect against both rank-based comparisons and severity of depression.

PRACTITIONER POINTS

Social rank mechanisms are robustly implicated in depression, anxiety, and stress. Clients who present as higher in neuroticism, inferiority, or submissiveness may be more prone towards rank-associated depression symptoms. Preliminary evidence suggests cultivation of genuine compassion can shift clients from a rank-focussed to a compassionate-focussed mentality, which aids mental health and fosters well-being.

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.

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.

Neurocomputational mechanisms underpinning aberrant social learning in young adults with low self-esteem

Low self-esteem is a risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders. From a cognitive perspective a negative self-image can be maintained through aberrant learning about self-worth derived from social feedback. We previously showed that neural teaching signals that represent the difference between expected and actual social feedback (i.e., social prediction errors) drive fluctuations in self-worth. Here, we used model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to characterize learning from social prediction errors in 61 participants drawn from a population-based sample (n = 2402) who were recruited on the basis of being in the bottom or top 10% of self-esteem scores. Participants performed a social evaluation task during fMRI scanning, which entailed predicting whether other people liked them as well as the repeated provision of reported feelings of self-worth. Computational modeling results showed that low self-esteem participants had persistent expectations that others would dislike them, and a reduced propensity to update these expectations in response to social prediction errors. Low self-esteem subjects also displayed an enhanced volatility in reported feelings of self-worth, and this was linked to an increased tendency for social prediction errors to determine momentary self-worth. Canonical correlation analysis revealed that individual differences in self-esteem related to several interconnected psychiatric symptoms organized around a single dimension of interpersonal vulnerability. Such interpersonal vulnerability was associated with an attenuated social value signal in ventromedial prefrontal cortex when making predictions about being liked, and enhanced dorsal prefrontal cortex activity upon receipt of social feedback. We suggest these computational signatures of low self-esteem and their associated neural underpinnings might represent vulnerability for development of psychiatric disorder.

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.

How Does Motivation Modulate the Operation of the Mentalizing Network in Person Evaluation?

The mentalizing network is theorized to play a central role in making sense of people (compared with nonsocial targets), but is its involvement affected when we make sense of people in a nondispassionate manner (e.g., favoritism toward others on the basis of group membership)? First, mixed findings and small samples have prevented strong conclusions about whether intergroup evaluation increases or decreases activation regions associated with the mentalizing network. Second, little is known about the psychological mechanism underlying mentalizing network activation shaped by ingroup versus outgroup evaluations. Psychological models suggest two hypotheses that can be challenging to disentangle with self-report: Ingroup trait evaluations may benefit from a priori expectations and/or preferential evidence accumulation. Therefore, the current study (n = 50) drew on a combination of drift diffusion modeling and fMRI to examine how group membership affects the engagement of the mentalizing network for trait evaluation and whether group-differentiated activation is associated with a priori expectations and/or preferential evidence accumulation. Outgroup trait evaluations engaged dorsomedial pFC activation, whereas ingroup trait evaluations engaged ventromedial pFC activation as well as other regions associated with mentalizing such as precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, and right TPJ. Furthermore, the ventromedial pFC and posterior cingulate cortex activation was associated with differential expectations applied to ingroup trait evaluation. The current findings demonstrate the importance of combining motivational factors, computational modeling, and fMRI to deepen our understanding of the neural basis of person evaluation.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is particularly responsive to social evaluations requiring the use of person-knowledge

Humans can rely on diverse sources of information to evaluate others, including knowledge (e.g., occupation, likes and dislikes, education, etc.) and perceptual cues (e.g., attractiveness, race, etc.). Previous research has identified brain regions supporting person evaluations, but are evaluations based on perceptual cues versus person-knowledge processed differently? Moreover, are neural responses consistent when person-knowledge is available but unnecessary for the evaluation? This fMRI study examined how the use and availability of person-knowledge shapes the neural underpinnings of social evaluations. Participants evaluated well-known actors based on attractiveness or body of work (i.e., person-knowledge) and unknown models based on attractiveness only. Analyses focused on the VMPFC, following research implicating this region in positive evaluations based on person-knowledge. The VMPFC was sensitive to the (1) availability of person-knowledge, showing greater responses as ratings became more positive for actors (but not models) regardless of rating dimension and (2) use of available person-knowledge, showing greater activity as ratings for likability based on body of work became more positive for actors versus models rated on attractiveness. These findings indicate that although brain regions supporting person evaluation are sensitive to the availability to person-knowledge, they are even more responsive when judgments require the use of available person-knowledge.

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 Population Decoding Reveals the Intrinsic Positivity of the Self

People are motivated to hold favorable views of themselves, which manifests as a positivity bias when evaluating their own performance and abilities. However, it remains an open question whether positive affect is an essential component of people's self-concept. Prior functional neuroimaging research demonstrated that similar regions of the brain support positive affect and self-referential processing, although a direct test of their shared representation has yet to be examined. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging in conjunction with multivariate pattern analysis in a cross-domain neural population decoding paradigm. We found that a multivariate pattern classifier model trained to dissociate neural responses to viewing positively and negatively valenced images can dissociate thinking about oneself from a close friend during a lexical trait-judgment task commonly used in the study of self-referential processing. Cross-domain classification accuracy was found to be highest in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC), a region previously implicated in both self-referential processing and positive affect. These results show that brain responses during self-referential processing can be decoded from multi-voxel activation patterns in the vMPFC when viewing positively valenced material, thereby providing evidence that positive affect may be a central component of the mental representation of the self.

How Social Status Shapes Person Perception and Evaluation: A Social Neuroscience Perspective

Inferring the relative rank (i.e., status) of others is essential to navigating social hierarchies. A survey of the expanding social psychological and neuroscience literatures on status reveals a diversity of focuses (e.g., perceiver vs. agent), operationalizations (e.g., status as dominance vs. wealth), and methodologies (e.g., behavioral, neuroscientific). Accommodating this burgeoning literature on status in person perception, the present review offers a novel social neuroscientific framework that integrates existing work with theoretical clarity. This framework distinguishes between five key concepts: (1) strategic pathways to status acquisition for agents, (2) status antecedents (i.e., perceptual and knowledge-based cues that confer status rank), (3) status dimensions (i.e., domains in which an individual may be ranked, such as wealth), (4) status level (i.e., one's rank along a given dimension), and (5) the relative importance of a given status dimension, dependent on perceiver and context characteristics. Against the backdrop of this framework, we review multiple dimensions of status in the nonhuman and human primate literatures. We then review the behavioral and neuroscientific literatures on the consequences of perceived status for attention and evaluation. Finally, after proposing a social neuroscience framework, we highlight innovative directions for future social status research in social psychology and neuroscience.

External motivation to avoid prejudice alters neural responses to targets varying in race and status

Those who are high in external motivation to respond without prejudice (EMS) tend to focus on non-racial attributes when describing others. This fMRI study examined the neural processing of race and an alternative yet stereotypically relevant attribute (viz., socioeconomic status: SES) as a function of the perceiver's EMS. Sixty-one White participants privately formed impressions of Black and White faces ascribed with high or low SES. Analyses focused on regions supporting race- and status-based reward/salience (NAcc), evaluation (VMPFC) and threat/relevance (amygdala). Consistent with previous findings from the literature on status-based evaluation, we observed greater neural responses to high-status (vs low-status) targets in all regions of interest when participants were relatively low in EMS. In contrast, we observed the opposite pattern when participants were relatively high in EMS. Notably, all effects were independent of target race. In summary, White perceivers' race-related motivations similarly altered their neural responses to the SES of Black and White targets. Specifically, the findings suggest that EMS may attenuate the positive value and/or salience of high status in a mixed-race context. Findings are discussed in the context of the stereotypic relationship between race and SES.

How Do You See Me? The Neural Basis of Motivated Meta-perception

We cannot see the minds of others, yet people often spontaneously interpret how they are viewed by other people (i.e., meta-perceptions) and often in a self-flattering manner. Very little is known about the neural associations of meta-perceptions, but a likely candidate is the ventromedial pFC (VMPFC). VMPFC has been associated with both self- and other-perception as well as motivated self-perception. Does this function extend to meta-perceptions? The current study examined neural activity while participants made meta-perceptive interpretations in various social scenarios. A drift-diffusion model was used to test whether the VMPFC is associated with two processes involved in interpreting meta-perceptions in a self-flattering manner: the extent to which the interpretation process involves the preferential accumulation of evidence in favor of a self-flattering interpretation versus the extent to which the interpretation process begins with an expectation that favors a self-flattering outcome. Increased VMPFC activity was associated with the extent to which people preferentially accumulate information when interpreting meta-perceptions under ambiguous conditions and marginally associated with self-flattering meta-perceptions. Together, the present findings illuminate the neural underpinnings of a social cognitive process that has received little attention to date: how we make meaning of others' minds when we think those minds are pointed at us.

Self-Construal Priming Modulates Self-Evaluation under Social Threat

Previous studies have shown that Westerners evaluate themselves in an especially flattering way when faced with a social-evaluative threat. The current study first investigated whether East Asians also have a similar pattern by recruiting Chinese participants and using social-evaluative threat manipulations in which participants perform self-evaluation tasks while adopting different social-evaluative feedbacks (Experiment 1). Then further examined whether the different response patterns can be modulated by different types of self-construal by using social-evaluative threat manipulations in conjunction with a self-construal priming task (Experiment 2). The results showed that, as opposed to Westerners' pattern, Chinese participants rated themselves as having significantly greater above-average effect only when faced with the nonthreatening feedback but not the social-evaluative threat. More importantly, we found that self-construal modulated the self-evaluation under social-evaluative threat: following independent self-construal priming, participants tended to show a greater above-average effect when faced with a social-evaluative threat. However, this pattern in conjunction with a social threat disappeared after participants received interdependent self-construal priming or neutral priming. These findings suggest that the effects of social-evaluative threat on self-evaluation are not culturally universal and is strongly modulated by self-construal priming.

Lesions of the Orbitofrontal but Not Medial Prefrontal Cortex Affect Cognitive Judgment Bias in Rats

Neuroimaging studies in humans have recently shown that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) mediate bias in the judgment of forthcoming events. In the present study, we sought to determine whether cognitive judgment bias (CJB) is also dependent on these prefrontal regions in non-human animals. For this, we trained a cohort of rats in the ambiguous-cue interpretation (ACI) paradigm, subjected them to excitotoxic lesions in the medial PFC (mPFC) and OFC, and tested the effects of neuronal loss within these regions on CJB. Comparison of the lesions' behavioral effects in the ACI paradigm revealed that neuronal loss within the OFC but not within the mPFC influences the interpretation of ambiguous cues by animals. Our findings demonstrate the specific involvement of the OFC in CJB in rats.

The neural and behavioral correlates of social evaluation in childhood

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Validation of a social evaluation paradigm with a meta-analytical approach.

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The SNAT paradigm provoked reliable behavioral results with large effect sizes.

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Negative social feedback resulted in more behavioral aggression.

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Exploratory analyses over combined samples showed more mPFC activity after negative feedback.

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ROI analyses showed more amygdala, anterior insula and mPFC activity after negative feedback.

Being accepted or rejected by peers is highly salient for developing social relations in childhood. We investigated the behavioral and neural correlates of social feedback and subsequent aggression in 7–10-year-old children, using the Social Network Aggression Task (SNAT). Participants viewed pictures of peers that gave positive, neutral or negative feedback to the participant’s profile. Next, participants could blast a loud noise towards the peer, as an index of aggression. We included three groups (N = 19, N = 28 and N = 27) and combined the results meta-analytically. Negative social feedback resulted in the most behavioral aggression, with large combined effect-sizes. Whole brain condition effects for each separate sample failed to show robust effects, possibly due to the small samples. Exploratory analyses over the combined test and replication samples confirmed heightened activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) after negative social feedback. Moreover, meta-analyses of activity in predefined regions of interest showed that negative social feedback resulted in more neural activation in the amygdala, anterior insula and the mPFC/anterior cingulate cortex. Together, the results show that social motivation is already highly salient in middle childhood, and indicate that the SNAT is a valid paradigm for assessing the neural and behavioral correlates of social evaluation in children.

Current Emotion Research in Social Neuroscience: How does emotion influence social cognition?

Neuroscience investigations of emotional influences on social cognition have been dominated by the somatic marker hypothesis and dual-process theories. Taken together, these lines of inquiry have not provided strong evidence that emotional influences on social cognition rely on neural systems which code for bodily signals of arousal nor distinguish emotional reasoning from other modes of reasoning. Recent findings raise the possibility that emotionally influenced social cognition relies on two stages of neural changes: once when emotion is elicited and a different set of changes at the time of social cognitive judgment. These findings suggest that affect infusion models may be a fruitful framework for bridging neuroscience and psychological understanding of the role of emotion in social cognition.

A Coordinate-Based Meta-Analysis of Overlaps in Regional Specialization and Functional Connectivity across Subjective Value and Default Mode Networks

Previous research has provided qualitative evidence for overlap in a number of brain regions across the subjective value network (SVN) and the default mode network (DMN). In order to quantitatively assess this overlap, we conducted a series of coordinate-based meta-analyses (CBMA) of results from 466 functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments on task-negative or subjective value-related activations in the human brain. In these analyses, we first identified significant overlaps and dissociations across activation foci related to SVN and DMN. Second, we investigated whether these overlapping subregions also showed similar patterns of functional connectivity, suggesting a shared functional subnetwork. We find considerable overlap between SVN and DMN in subregions of central ventromedial prefrontal cortex (cVMPFC) and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC). Further, our findings show that similar patterns of bidirectional functional connectivity between cVMPFC and dPCC are present in both networks. We discuss ways in which our understanding of how subjective value (SV) is computed and represented in the brain can be synthesized with what we know about the DMN, mind-wandering, and self-referential processing in light of our findings.

The neurobiology of self-knowledge in depressed and self-injurious youth

There is limited information regarding the neurobiology underlying non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in clinically-referred youth. However, the salience of disturbed interpersonal relationships and disrupted self-processing associated with NSSI suggests the neural basis of social processes as a key area for additional study. Adolescent participants (N=123; M=14.75 years, SD=1.64) were divided into three groups: NSSI plus depression diagnosis (NSSI), depression only (DEP), healthy controls (HC). In the scanner, participants completed an Interpersonal Self-Processing task by taking direct (own) and indirect (mothers', best friends', or classmates') perspectives regarding self-characteristics. Across all perspectives, NSSI showed higher BOLD activation in limbic areas, and anterior and posterior cortical midline structures versus DEP and HC, while HC showed greater activity in rostrolateral, frontal pole and occipital cortex than NSSI and DEP youth. Moreover, NSSI youth showed heightened responses in amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampus, and fusiform when taking their mothers' perspective, which were negatively correlated with self-reports of the mother's support of adolescents' emotional distress in the NSSI group. NSSI youth also yielded greater precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex activity during indirect self-processing from their classmates' perspective. Findings suggest a role for disruptions in self- and emotion-processing, and conflicted social relationships in the neurobiology of NSSI among depressed adolescents.

What do we know about positive appraisals? Low cognitive cost, orbitofrontal-striatal connectivity, and only short-term bolstering of resilience

The PASTOR framework needs to be reconciled with existing research on positive illusions, which finds that positive appraisals of stressors have a short shelf life as a mechanism of resilience, do not draw on costly executive functioning, and rely on neural networks that are distinct from those found in studies of experimentally instructed reappraisal or value.

Influence of the cortical midline structures on moral emotion and motivation in moral decision-making

The present study aims to examine the relationship between the cortical midline structures (CMS), which have been regarded to be associated with selfhood, and moral decision making processes at the neural level. Traditional moral psychological studies have suggested the role of moral self as the moderator of moral cognition, so activity of moral self would present at the neural level. The present study examined the interaction between the CMS and other moral-related regions by conducting psycho-physiological interaction analysis of functional images acquired while 16 subjects were solving moral dilemmas. Furthermore, we performed Granger causality analysis to demonstrate the direction of influences between activities in the regions in moral decision-making. We first demonstrate there are significant positive interactions between two central CMS seed regions-i.e., the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)-and brain regions associated with moral functioning including the cerebellum, brainstem, midbrain, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula (AI); on the other hand, the posterior insula (PI) showed significant negative interaction with the seed regions. Second, several significant Granger causality was found from CMS to insula regions particularly under the moral-personal condition. Furthermore, significant dominant influence from the AI to PI was reported. Moral psychological implications of these findings are discussed. The present study demonstrated the significant interaction and influence between the CMS and morality-related regions while subject were solving moral dilemmas. Given that, activity in the CMS is significantly involved in human moral functioning.

Optimism and the brain: trait optimism mediates the protective role of the orbitofrontal cortex gray matter volume against anxiety

Converging evidence identifies trait optimism and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) as personality and brain factors influencing anxiety, but the nature of their relationships remains unclear. Here, the mechanisms underlying the protective role of trait optimism and of increased OFC volume against symptoms of anxiety were investigated in 61 healthy subjects, who completed measures of trait optimism and anxiety, and underwent structural scanning using magnetic resonance imaging. First, the OFC gray matter volume (GMV) was associated with increased optimism, which in turn was associated with reduced anxiety. Second, trait optimism mediated the relation between the left OFC volume and anxiety, thus demonstrating that increased GMV in this brain region protects against symptoms of anxiety through increased optimism. These results provide novel evidence about the brain-personality mechanisms protecting against anxiety symptoms in healthy functioning, and identify potential targets for preventive and therapeutic interventions aimed at reducing susceptibility and increasing resilience against emotional disturbances.

Neural activation during anticipated peer evaluation and laboratory meal intake in overweight girls with and without loss of control eating

The interpersonal model of loss of control (LOC) eating proposes that socially distressing situations lead to anxious states that trigger excessive food consumption. Self-reports support these links, but the neurobiological underpinnings of these relationships remain unclear. We therefore examined brain regions associated with anxiety in relation to LOC eating and energy intake in the laboratory. Twenty-two overweight and obese (BMIz: 1.9±0.4) adolescent (15.8±1.6y) girls with LOC eating (LOC+, n=10) and without LOC eating (LOC-, n=12) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a simulated peer interaction chatroom paradigm. Immediately after the fMRI scan, girls consumed lunch ad libitum from a 10,934-kcal laboratory buffet meal with the instruction to "let yourself go and eat as much as you want." Pre-specified hypotheses regarding activation of five regions of interest were tested. Analysis of fMRI data revealed a significant group by peer feedback interaction in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), such that LOC+ had less activity following peer rejection (vs. acceptance), while LOC- had increased activity (p<.005). Moreover, functional coupling between vmPFC and striatum for peer rejection (vs. acceptance) interacted with LOC status: coupling was positive for LOC+, but negative in LOC- (p<.005). Activity of fusiform face area (FFA) during negative peer feedback from high-value peers also interacted with LOC status (p<.005). A positive association between FFA activation and intake during the meal was observed among only those with LOC eating. In conclusion, overweight and obese girls with LOC eating may be distinguished by a failure to engage regions of prefrontal cortex implicated in emotion regulation in response to social distress. The relationship between FFA activation and food intake supports the notion that heightened sensitivity to incoming interpersonal cues and perturbations in socio-emotional neural circuits may lead to overeating in order to cope with negative affect elicited by social discomfort in susceptible youth.

The role of the medial frontal cortex in the development of cognitive and social-affective performance monitoring

Adolescence is a time of many cognitive and social-affective changes that are important for rapid behavioral adjustment to a variety of environmental demands and social contexts. Performance monitoring is one of the most important processes for behavioral adjustment; it allows individuals to evaluate outcomes of actions and change behavior accordingly. Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that dorsal and ventral subregions of the medial frontal cortex are differentially engaged in performance monitoring, depending on the cognitive or social-affective dimensions of a task. Based on a review of neuroimaging, ERP, and heart rate studies, the implications of these modality-dependent contributions are discussed for the development of performance monitoring in adolescence.

Neural patterns underlying social comparisons of personal performance

Humans often evaluate their abilities by comparing their personal performance with that of others. For this process, it is critical whether the comparison turns out in one's favor or against it. Here, we investigate how social comparisons of performance are encoded and integrated on the neural level. We collected functional magnetic resonance images while subjects answered questions in a knowledge quiz that was related to their profession. After each question, subjects received a feedback about their personal performance, followed by a feedback about the performance of a reference group who had been quizzed beforehand. Based on the subjects' personal performance, we divided trials in downward and upward comparisons. We found that upward comparisons correlated with activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior insula. Downward comparisons were associated with increased activation in the ventral striatum (VS), the medial orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The extent to which subjects outperformed the reference group modulated the activity in the VS and in the dorsal ACC. We suggest that the co-activation of the VS and the dorsal ACC contributes to the integration of downward comparisons into the evaluation of personal performance.