title: Neural representations of the self and the mother for Chinese individuals.
abstract: An important question in social neuroscience is the similarities and differences in the neural representations between the self and close others. Most studies examining this topic have identified the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) region as the primary area involved in this process. However, several studies have reported conflicting data, making further investigation of this topic very important. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we investigated the brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) when Chinese participants passively listened to their self-name (SN), their mother's name (MN), and unknown names (UN). The results showed that compared with UN recognition, SN perception was associated with a robust activation in a widely distributed bilateral network, including the cortical midline structure (the MPFC and ACC), the inferior frontal gyrus, and the middle temporal gyrus. The SN invoked the bilateral superior temporal gyrus in contrast to the MN; the MN recognition provoked a stronger activation in the central and posterior brain regions in contrast to the SN recognition. The SN and MN caused an activation of overlapping areas, namely, the ACC, MPFC, and superior frontal gyrus. These results suggest that Chinese individuals utilize certain common brain region in processing both the SN and the MN. The present findings provide evidence for the neural basis of the self and close others for Chinese individuals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Gaowa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wuyun
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China; Learning and Cognition Lab, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yanhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D012649:Self Concept