Dissociable neural substrates for agentic versus conceptual representations of self
Lindsey J Powell1, C Neil Macrae, Jasmin Cloutier
1Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|November 21, 2009
Summary
The brain processes different aspects of selfhood using distinct neural pathways. Agency, or acting on goals, involves the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), unlike conceptual self-knowledge which engages the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC).
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
- Psychology
Background:
- Humans possess a unified sense of self but can describe distinct self-aspects.
- Conceptual self-knowledge (personality traits) is linked to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC).
- The neural basis of agentic selfhood (acting on goals) remains less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if agentic self-reference recruits overlapping or distinct neural processes compared to conceptual self-reference.
- To differentiate the brain regions involved in acting for oneself versus knowing oneself.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to monitor brain activity.
- Participants engaged in tasks of conceptual self-reference (judging personality traits) and agentic self-reference (choosing objects).
- A second experiment correlated brain activity with memory performance.
Main Results:
- Agentic self-reference did not activate the vMPFC but engaged the intraparietal sulcus (IPS).
- Both tasks produced a self-reference effect on memory, but IPS activity specifically correlated with agentic task memory.
- Conceptual self-reference modulated vMPFC activity as expected.
Conclusions:
- The self is not a single entity but a collection of distinct cognitive operations.
- Agentic selfhood relies on action-planning regions (IPS), separate from conceptual self-knowledge (vMPFC).
- These findings challenge unitary models of self and support distributed neural representations.
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