title: Neural correlates of the self-concept in adolescence-A focus on the significance of friends.
abstract: The formation of a coherent and unified self-concept represents a key developmental stage during adolescence. Imaging studies on self-referential processing in adolescents are rare, and it is not clear whether neural structures involved in self-reflection are also involved in reflections of familiar others. In the current study, 41 adolescents were asked to make judgments about trait adjectives during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): they had to indicate whether the word describes themselves, their friends, their teachers or politicians. Findings indicate a greater overlap in neural networks for responses to self- and friend-related judgments compared to teachers and politicians. In particular, classic self-reference structures such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and medial posterior parietal cortex also exhibited higher activation to judgments about friends. In contrast, brain responses towards judgments of teachers (familiar others) compared to politicians (unfamiliar others) did not significantly differ. Results support behavioral findings of a greater relevance of friends for the development of a self-concept during adolescence and indicate underlying functional brain processes. Hum Brain Mapp 38:987-996, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Romund
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Berlin, Germany.|Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Golde
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3286-6792
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.affiliation: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raufelder
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pelz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gleich
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beck
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011930:Reaction Time; D012649:Self Concept
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: adolescence; dMPFC; mPPC; self-concept; vMPFC