Neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in adolescents and adults: when social perspective-taking informs self-perception.
Classic theories of self-development suggest people define themselves in part through internalized perceptions of other people's beliefs about them, known as reflected self-appraisals. This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in adolescence (N = 12, ages 11-14 years) and adulthood (N = 12, ages 23-30 years). During direct self-reflection, adolescents demonstrated greater activity than adults in networks relevant to self-perception (medial prefrontal and parietal cortices) and social-cognition (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporal-parietal junction, and posterior superior temporal sulcus), suggesting adolescent self-construals may rely more heavily on others' perspectives about the self. Activity in the medial fronto-parietal network was also enhanced when adolescents took the perspective of someone more relevant to a given domain.
Pfeifer
Jennifer H
JH
Department of Psychology, 1227 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1227, USA. jpfeifer@uoregon.edu
Masten
Carrie L
CL
Borofsky
Larissa A
LA
Dapretto
Mirella
M
Fuligni
Andrew J
AJ
Lieberman
Matthew D
MD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult