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Neural decoding of positive and negative self-knowledge

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Abstract

A prevalent explanation for the self-reference effect is that self-knowledge is represented by a set of specific brain regions, including anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), superior temporal gyrus (STG), precuneus, and inferior parietal lobule (IPL), which enables self-knowledge to be processed in priority than other-knowledge. However, the conventional univariate activation analysis adopted by previous studies could only detect the activation of separate brain regions. The current study mainly investigated the global neural patterns of self-knowledge (relative to other-knowledge) by the multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). Results obtained in Experiments 1 and 2 were highly consistent, indicating that the core self-network (mainly the ACC) and salience network (mainly the insula) could distinguish self-knowledge from other-knowledge. Furthermore, the neural pattern of positive self-knowledge mainly included the ventral part of ACC, while the neural pattern of negative self-knowledge mainly included the ventral and dorsal parts of ACC and cognitive control network (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: dlPFC). These findings suggest that the core self-network and salience network are specific to the neural process of self-knowledge. Moreover, both positive and negative self-knowledge are separately driven by different cognitive and neural characteristics.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Xiaolin Zhao, Weiyu Hu, Yang He, Xuehan Zhang, Huixiang Li, Yadong Liu, Mengxue Lan, Mengning Zhang, and Nan Wang for providing writing assistance and proof reading.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31971019], Chongqing Research program of Basic Research and Frontier Technology [cstc2019jcyjmsxmX0016], and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [SWU2009202].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Haopeng Chen, Jiwen Li, Mei Zeng & Juan Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Haopeng Chen, Jiwen Li, Mei Zeng & Juan Yang

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  1. Haopeng Chen
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  2. Jiwen Li
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  3. Mei Zeng
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JY: writing (review and editing), conceptualization, formal analysis. HC: writing (original draft), conceptualization, formal analysis. JL: conceptualization, formal analysis. MZ: conceptualization, formal analysis.

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Correspondence to Juan Yang.

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Chen, H., Li, J., Zeng, M. et al. Neural decoding of positive and negative self-knowledge. Motiv Emot 45, 585–598 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-021-09900-7

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