Activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex during self-related processing: positive subjective value or personal significance?
Well-being and subjective experience of a coherent world depend on our sense of 'self' and relations between the self and the environment (e.g. people, objects and ideas). The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) is involved in self-related processing, and disrupted vMPFC activity is associated with disruptions of emotional/social functioning (e.g. depression and autism). Clarifying precise function(s) of vMPFC in self-related processing is an area of active investigation. In this study, we sought to more specifically characterize the function of vMPFC in self-related processing, focusing on two alternative accounts: (i) assignment of positive subjective value to self-related information and (ii) assignment of personal significance to self-related information. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), participants imagined owning objects associated with either their perceived ingroup or outgroup. We found that for ingroup-associated objects, vMPFC showed greater activity for objects with increased than decreased post-ownership preference. In contrast, for outgroup-associated objects, vMPFC showed greater activity for objects with decreased than increased post-ownership preference. Our findings support the idea that the function of vMPFC in self-related processing may not be to represent/evaluate the 'positivity' or absolute preference of self-related information but to assign personal significance to it based on its meaning/function for the self.
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, USA kyungmi.kim@yale.edu.
Kyungmi
K
Kim
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, USA.
Marcia K
MK
Johnson
D001290:Attitude; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult
personal significance; self; self-related processing; subjective value; ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC)