We assessed whether self-related automatic and others-related controlled processes are modulated by chronotype and time-of-day. Here, a shape-label matching task composed of three geometrical shapes arbitrarily associated with you, friend, and stranger was used. Twenty Morning-types, and twenty Evening-types performed the task at the optimal and non-optimal times of day (i.e., 8 AM, or 8:30 PM). Morning-types did not exhibit noticeable synchrony effects, thus proving the better adaptation of these participants to non-optimal moments of the day as compared to Evening-types. Contrary to our predictions regarding the absence of automatic-processing modulation and the presence of controlled-processing influences by time-of-day, we found an influence on self-related but not others-related processing only in Evening-type participants. Although brain structures are not directly tackled, we argue that such modulation may be due to the dependence of the activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), an essential component of the self-attention network on circadian rhythms.

我们评估了自我相关的自动过程和其他相关的控制过程是否受到时间类型和一天中时间的调节。这里，使用了由与您、朋友和陌生人任意关联的三个几何形状组成的形状标签匹配任务。二十个早晨型和二十个晚上型在一天中的最佳和非最佳时间（即上午 8 点或晚上 8:30）执行任务。早晨型没有表现出明显的同步效应，因此证明与晚上型相比，这些参与者能够更好地适应一天中的非最佳时刻。与我们关于缺乏自动处理调制和存在受控处理影响的预测相反，我们发现仅在夜间型参与者中对自我相关处理有影响，但对他人相关处理没有影响。尽管大脑结构没有被直接解决，但我们认为这种调节可能是由于腹内侧前额叶皮层（VMPFC）的激活依赖性所致，VMPFC是自我注意网络对昼夜节律的重要组成部分。