title: Neural representation and clinically relevant moderators of individualised self-criticism in healthy subjects.
abstract: Many people routinely criticise themselves. While self-criticism is largely unproblematic for most individuals, depressed patients exhibit excessive self-critical thinking, which leads to strong negative affects. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy subjects (N = 20) to investigate neural correlates and possible psychological moderators of self-critical processing. Stimuli consisted of individually selected adjectives of personally negative content and were contrasted with neutral and negative non-self-referential adjectives. We found that confrontation with self-critical material yielded neural activity in regions involved in emotions (anterior insula/hippocampus-amygdala formation) and in anterior and posterior cortical midline structures, which are associated with self-referential and autobiographical memory processing. Furthermore, contrasts revealed an extended network of bilateral frontal brain areas. We suggest that the co-activation of superior and inferior lateral frontal brain regions reflects the recruitment of a frontal top-down pathway, representing cognitive reappraisal strategies for dealing with evoked negative affects. In addition, activation of right superior frontal areas was positively associated with neuroticism and negatively associated with cognitive reappraisal. Although these findings may not be specific to negative stimuli, they support a role for clinically relevant personality traits in successful regulation of emotion during confrontation with self-critical material.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland nadja.doerig@psychologie.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Nadja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Doerig
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Schlumpf
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Spinelli
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jakub
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Späti
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Janis
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brakowski
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Boris B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Quednow
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seifritz
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Zurich, 8050, Neuroscience Center, University and ETH Zurich, 8057, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, 8032 and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grosse Holtforth
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011594:Psychometrics; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: functional magnetic resonance imaging; lateral frontal cortex; self-criticism; self-discrepancies