title: Self-Other Mergence in the Frontal Cortex during Cooperation and Competition.
abstract: To survive, humans must estimate their own ability and the abilities of others. We found that, although people estimated their abilities on the basis of their own performance in a rational manner, their estimates of themselves were partly merged with the performance of others. Reciprocally, their ability estimates for others also reflected their own, as well as the others', performance. Self-other mergence operated in a context-dependent manner: interacting with high or low performers, respectively, enhanced and diminished own ability estimates in cooperative contexts, but the opposite occurred in competitive contexts. Self-other mergence not only influenced subjective evaluations, it also affected how people subsequently objectively adjusted their performance. Perigenual anterior cingulate cortex tracked one's own performance. Dorsomedial frontal area 9 tracked others' performances, but also integrated contextual and self-related information. Self-other mergence increased with the strength of self and other representations in area 9, suggesting it carries interdependent representations of self and other.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3UD Oxford, UK. Electronic address: marco.wittmann@psy.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Marco K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Wittmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3UD Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kolling
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3UD Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Nadira S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Faber
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3UD Oxford, UK; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, OX3 7JX Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scholl
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3UD Oxford, UK; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, OX3 7JX Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nelissen
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3UD Oxford, UK; Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, OX3 9DU Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Matthew F S
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Rushworth
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: competition; cooperation; decision making; dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; fMRI; social cognition; theory of mind