Brain regions in response to character feedback associated with the state self-esteem

Research on the Sociometer theory of self-esteem have demonstrated that manipulations of interpersonal appraisal reliably influence an individual's state self-esteem and that state levels of self-esteem correlate very highly with perceived acceptance and rejection. However, how social feedback from different sources (e.g., appearance vs. character) affect the state self-esteem and its neural underpinnings have not been explored. To address this, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while viewing either appearance-related feedback words or character-related feedback words, and for each feedback word, they were asked to rate their state self-esteem. Results showed that participants reported a higher state self-esteem following character feedback, irrespective of valence, than that following appearance feedback. Moreover, fMRI results demonstrated that the left caudate tail was more activated in response to positive character feedback and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate, and precuneus were more activated in response to negative character feedback than in response to appearance feedback. Moreover, activation of the left caudate tail was significantly correlated with the difference in participant's reported state self-esteem scores after receiving positive character feedback versus that after receiving positive appearance feedback. Further, activation of the LPFC was significantly correlated with a difference in participant's reported state self-esteem scores after receiving negative character feedback versus that after receiving negative appearance feedback. These findings suggest a reward-related mechanism when processing positive social feedback and a self-critical processing when processing the negative social feedback on an important aspect of self-concept (e.g., character-related).