Background

Neuroimaging studies have found a substantial overlap between self-related and social cognitive processes. This study examines three different ways of conceptualizing a person - one that requires considering how they are embedded in their social environment (roles), one that requires considering their generalized qualities (traits), and one that identifies their relevant group memberships. To the extent that relational aspects of identity require considering how a person is embedded in their social environment we should find greater activation for role judgements in regions associated with social cognitive processes.

Methods

During fMRI scanning, 38 participants made stimulus judgments about themselves and a close other regarding the target's traits, social roles, and group memberships in a 2 (target of judgment) x 3 (stimulus category) within-participant design.

Results

Relatively greater activation in areas broadly associated with theory of mind and mentalizing (e.g., PCC, TPJ) was found for social role, compared to trait judgments. By contrast, trait judgments, compared to role judgments, activated regions associated with semantic memory (e.g., IFG). Conjunction analyses showed that activations associated with roles overlapped with regions associated with a meta-analytic map of mentalization, judgments made about others, and stimuli reflecting higher social specialization, indicating that roles may require considering how a person is socially embedded. Judgments about group memberships were associated with brain regions found for both trait and role judgments.

Conclusion

Our findings provide evidence for a distinction between two modes of social reference - one that is relatively more associated with social relational processing (roles) and that is relatively more dependent on semantic memory processes (traits). Given the substantial overlap between the pattern of results for roles (relative to traits) and other (relative to self), it may be the case that at least part of our representation of ourselves and others may fundamentally require representing people as embedded in social networks.

中文翻译：

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通过窥镜：区分关系和非关系自我参照与人表示的神经相关。

背景

神经影像学研究发现，自我相关和社会认知过程之间存在实质性重叠。这项研究研究了三种不同的概念来对一个人进行概念化：一种方法需要考虑他们如何融入他们的社会环境（角色），一种方法需要考虑他们的普遍素质（特征），另一种方法可以识别其相关的团体成员身份。就身份的关系方面而言，需要考虑一个人如何融入其社会环境中，我们应该在与社会认知过程相关的区域中找到更大的角色判断激活力。

方法

在功能磁共振成像扫描过程中，有38位参与者在参与者设计中以2（判断目标）x 3（刺激类别）对自己和他人的目标做出了刺激性判断，包括目标的特征，社会角色和小组成员。

结果

与性格判断相比，人们发现在与心理理论和思维方式广泛相关的领域（例如，PCC，TPJ）中相对较大的激活是社会角色。相反，与角色判断相比，特质判断会激活与语义记忆（例如IFG）关联的区域。关联分析显示，与角色相关的激活与与心理分析的荟萃分析图，对他人的判断以及反映更高的社会专业化的刺激相关的区域重叠，这表明角色可能需要考虑人的社会地位。有关群体成员资格的判断与特质和角色判断的大脑区域有关。

结论

我们的发现为两种社会参照方式之间的区别提供了证据-一种与社会关系处理（角色）相关性相对较高，另一种与语义记忆过程（特征）相关性相对较高。鉴于角色（相对于特质）和其他（相对于自我）的结果模式之间存在实质性重叠，可能是这样的情况，至少我们对自己和他人的表示的一部分可能从根本上要求将人们表示为嵌入社交网络。