Prior neuroimaging studies revealed neural correlates for various aspects of self-processing but did not identify the neural representation of the self in terms of personality traits isolated from other processes. To identify this representation of the self, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) repetition suppression which is based on the assumption that repeated processing of the same stimulus results in decreased activation of the neural population representing this stimulus. Participants read two successive trait implying behavioral descriptions in which the agent was twice the self, the self and a close other or two different close others. The results revealed suppression in the ventral part of the medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) for repeated self-descriptions, and also when a close other description preceded a self-description (but not in the reverse order). We conclude that the vmPFC represents knowledge on one’s personality, and that close others automatically recruit this self-presentation because of an asymmetric perceived similarity in which close others are typically seen as more similar to the self than the other way around.

先前的神经影像学研究揭示了自我加工各个方面的神经相关性，但没有从与其他过程分离的人格特质方面识别出自我的神经表征。为了识别这种自我代表，我们使用了功能磁共振成像（fMRI）重复抑制，其基于以下假设：重复处理相同的刺激会导致代表该刺激的神经种群的激活减少。参与者阅读了两个连续的特质，暗示了行为描述，其中，代理人是自我的两倍，是自我和另一个亲密者，或者是两个不同的亲密者。结果显示，对于重复的自我描述，内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）的腹部受到抑制，以及在自我描述之前有其他接近的描述（但不是相反的顺序）。我们得出的结论是，vmPFC代表了有关一个人格的知识，并且亲密的他人会自动募集这种自我表现，因为不对称的感知相似性通常使亲密的他人与他人相比更类似于自我。