title: Self-esteem modulates dorsal medial prefrontal cortical response to self-positivity bias in implicit self-relevant processing.
abstract: Processing self-related material recruits similar neural networks regardless of whether the self-relevance is made explicit or not. However, when considering the neural mechanisms that distinctly underlie cognitive and affective components of self-reflection, it is still unclear whether the same mechanisms are involved when self-reflection is explicit or implicit, and how these mechanisms may be modulated by individual personality traits, such as self-esteem. In the present functional MRI study, 25 participants were exposed to positive and negative words that varied with respect to the degree of self-relevance for each participant; however, the participants were asked to make a judgment about the color of the words. Regions-of-interest analysis showed that medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex were associated with gauging the self-relevance of information. However, no main effect of valence or an interaction effect between self-relevance and valence was observed. Further, positive correlations were observed between levels of self-esteem and response within dorsal mPFC (dmPFC) both in the contrast positive-high in self-relevance trials vs positive-low in self-relevance trials and in the contrast negative-low in self-relevance trials vs positive-low in self-relevance trials. These results suggested that the activation of dmPFC may be particularly associated with the processes of self-positivity bias.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA valleyqq@swu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dedovic
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Mingming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qi
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015982:Bias; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007600:Judgment; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010551:Personality; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC); implicit self-relevant processing; self-esteem; self-positivity bias