Abstract
Self-esteem has been associated with neural responses to self-reflection and attitude toward social feedback but in different brain regions. The distinct associations might arise from different tasks or task-related attitudes in the previous studies. The current study aimed to clarify these by investigating the association between self-esteem and neural responses to evaluation of one’s own personality traits and of others’ opinion about one’s own personality traits. We scanned 25 college students using functional MRI during evaluation of oneself or evaluation of social feedback. Trait self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale after scanning. Whole-brain regression analyses revealed that trait self-esteem was associated with the bilateral orbitofrontal activity during evaluation of one’s own positive traits but with activities in the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and occipital cortices during evaluation of positive social feedback. Our findings suggest that trait self-esteem modulates the degree of both affective processes in the orbitofrontal cortex during self-reflection and cognitive processes in the medial prefrontal cortex during evaluation of social feedback.
Highlights
Self-esteem has been associated with neural responses to self-reflection and attitude toward social feedback but in different brain regions
Eisenberger and colleagues found that neural responses in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), bilateral anterior insula and dmPFC to the attitude toward social feedback about the self were negatively associated with state self-esteem[9]
Post hoc analyses revealed that participants responded faster during evaluation of the self compared to the celebrity (p < 0.01), whereas response speeds did not differ between evaluations of the social feedback on the self and the celebrity (p = 0.51) (Fig. 2A)
Summary
Self-esteem has been associated with neural responses to self-reflection and attitude toward social feedback but in different brain regions. Behavioral evidence has revealed that people with high self-esteem, who believe that they are socially approved, rate themselves more positively, whereas those with low self-esteem, who doubt their social worth, rate themselves lower on socially valued traits[3] To date, it remains unknown whether and how neural activities related to one’s own and others’ opinions about the self are associated with dispositional self-esteem. Eisenberger and colleagues found that neural responses in the dorsal ACC, bilateral anterior insula and dmPFC to the attitude toward social feedback about the self were negatively associated with state self-esteem (which was estimated by measuring emotional states in response to each feedback)[9] Taken together, these observations suggest that the neural activities in different brain regions related to one’s own and others’ opinions about the self are separately associated with their self-esteem. As trait self-esteem was defined as the tendency to evaluate oneself positively rather than negatively[15], we were interested in the associations between self-esteem and the neural activity related to both evaluation of positive traits of the self and attitudes toward the positive traits of the self
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
