Abstract

Self-referential and social processing are often engaged concurrently in naturalistic judgements and elicit activity in overlapping brain regions. We have termed this integrated processing ‘self-other referential processing’ and developed a task to measure its neural correlates. Ninety-eight healthy young people aged 16–25 (M = 21.5 years old, 67% female) completed our novel functional magnetic resonance imaging task. The task had two conditions, an active self-other referential processing condition in which participants rated how much they related to emotional faces and a control condition. Rating relatedness required thinking about oneself (self-referential processing) and drawing a comparison to an imagined other (social processing). Self-other referential processing elicited activity in the default mode network and social cognition system; most notably in the ‘core self’ regions of the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. Relatedness and emotional valence directly modulated activity in these core self areas, while emotional valence additionally modulated medial prefrontal cortex activity. This shows the key role of the medial prefrontal cortex in constructing the ‘social-affective self’. This may help to unify disparate models of medial prefrontal cortex function, demonstrating its role in coordinating multiple processes—self-referential, social and affective processing—to allow the self to exist in a complex social world.

中文翻译：

---

整合的自我和社会过程的神经关联。

摘要

自我指称和社会处理常常同时参与自然主义的判断，并在重叠的大脑区域引发活动。我们将这种综合处理称为“自我-其他参照处理”，并开发了一项任务来测量其神经相关性。年龄在16-25岁的98位健康年轻人（M = 21.5岁，女性67％）完成了我们新颖的功能磁共振成像任务。任务有两个条件，一个主动的自我-其他参照处理条件，其中参与者评估了他们与情感面孔的关联程度以及一个控制条件。评级相关性需要考虑自己（自我参照处理）并与想象中的他人进行比较（社会处理）。自我参照处理引起了默认模式网络和社会认知系统中的活动；最明显的是在内侧前额叶皮层和后扣带回皮层的“核心自我”区域。亲和力和情绪价直接调节这些核心自我区域的活动，而情绪价还调节内侧前额叶皮层活动。这显示了内侧前额叶皮层在构建“社交情感自我”中的关键作用。这可能有助于统一内侧前额叶皮层功能的不同模型，表明其在协调多个过程（自我指涉，社会和情感过程）以使自我存在于复杂的社会世界中的作用。而情绪价还调节内侧前额叶皮层活动。这显示了内侧前额叶皮层在构建“社交情感自我”中的关键作用。这可能有助于统一内侧前额叶皮层功能的不同模型，表明其在协调多个过程（自我指涉，社会和情感过程）以使自我存在于复杂的社会世界中的作用。而情绪价还调节内侧前额叶皮层活动。这显示了内侧前额叶皮层在构建“社交情感自我”中的关键作用。这可能有助于统一内侧前额叶皮层功能的不同模型，表明其在协调多个过程（自我指涉，社会和情感过程）以使自我存在于复杂的社会世界中的作用。