Abstract
Self-referential processing is defined as the process by which a person becomes aware that specific contents are related to his or her own self. Cortical midline structures (CMS), such as dorsal and medial prefrontal cortex, and regions such as inferior frontal cortex, insula, and temporal pole have been implicated in self-referential processing. However, the specific contribution of each of these areas is still largely unknown. More particularly, not many studies have examined the influence of valence and decision making difficulty on regions involved in self-referential processing. In this study, participants evaluated how well personality traits, differing in valence and decision difficulty, described themselves or the current US President. In line with predictions, ventral, rostral, and dorsal parts of medial prefrontal cortex showed greater activity when participants judged traits about themselves relative to judging traits about the current US President. However, none of these regions showed significant modulation by trait valence. Increasing trait decision difficulty was associated with increased activity within dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral anterior insula. However, there was very minimal overlap (6/119 voxels, i.e., 5%) of the regions of dorsal medial prefrontal cortex implicated in self-referential processing and those implicated in trait decision difficulty. The results are interpreted within current accounts of self-referential processing.
Highlights
Self-referential processing is defined as the process by which a person becomes aware that specific contents are related to his or her own self (Northoff et al, 2011)
Within the Cortical midline structures (CMS), it appears that rostral/ventral medial prefrontal cortex (r/vMPFC) shows the strongest differentiation between self and other processing
The present study investigated the influence of valence and decision difficulty on regions implicated in self-referential processing
Summary
Self-referential processing is defined as the process by which a person becomes aware that specific contents are related to his or her own self (Northoff et al, 2011). There have been suggestions that rMPFC is involved in selfreferential processing while more dorsal aspects of the MPFC may be more important for other-referential thinking (Mitchell et al, 2006). Self-referential tasks frequently involve judgments regarding personality traits with high affect. The tasks used to study self-referential processing (e.g., asking someone to indicate whether a personality trait applies to them) have a significant decision making component. The dMPFC in particular has been implicated in several specific computational processes related to decision making; e.g., conflict monitoring (Botvinick et al, 2004) and the representation of response-outcome combinations (Alexander and Brown, 2011)
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