When I think about me and simulate you: medial rostral prefrontal cortex and self-referential processes
Roland G Benoit1, Sam J Gilbert, Emmanuelle Volle
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK. r.benoit@ucl.ac.uk
Neuroimage
|January 5, 2010
Summary
The medial rostral prefrontal cortex (mrPFC) is involved in self-referential thought and thinking about others. Its activity during social cognition tasks correlates with perceived similarity to others, impacting memory for judgments.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Social Cognition
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Neuroimaging studies link medial rostral prefrontal cortex (mrPFC) to self-referential processing.
- Simulation accounts propose mrPFC involvement in understanding others' mental states.
- The role of mrPFC in appraising others based on self-similarity remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the medial rostral prefrontal cortex (mrPFC) involvement in appraising others' personality traits based on perceived self-similarity.
- To examine how shared neural processes for self and other judgments affect memory for these judgments.
- To test the hypothesis that mrPFC activity during social cognition is modulated by psychological similarity.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to measure brain activity.
- Participants made personality trait or episodic source memory judgments about themselves or a friend.
- Two factors were crossed: judgment type (trait vs. source memory) and reference (self vs. friend).
Main Results:
- Haemodynamic changes in mrPFC were associated with self-referential personality judgments and subsequent memory retrieval.
- BOLD signal in mrPFC during thinking about others correlated with perceived similarity, supporting simulation accounts.
- Greater perceived similarity between self and friends led to poorer memory for judgment reference (self vs. friend).
Conclusions:
- Medial rostral prefrontal cortex (mrPFC) activity is linked to both self-referential processing and social cognition, modulated by perceived similarity.
- Shared neural resources for self and other judgments can impair memory for the judgment's reference.
- Future research on self/other judgments should consider the influence of psychological similarity on mrPFC function.
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