Neural correlates of integrated self and social processing

Abstract Self-referential and social processing are often engaged concurrently in naturalistic judgements and elicit activity in overlapping brain regions. We have termed this integrated processing ‘self-other referential processing’ and developed a task to measure its neural correlates. Ninety-eight healthy young people aged 16–25 (M = 21.5 years old, 67% female) completed our novel functional magnetic resonance imaging task. The task had two conditions, an active self-other referential processing condition in which participants rated how much they related to emotional faces and a control condition. Rating relatedness required thinking about oneself (self-referential processing) and drawing a comparison to an imagined other (social processing). Self-other referential processing elicited activity in the default mode network and social cognition system; most notably in the ‘core self’ regions of the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. Relatedness and emotional valence directly modulated activity in these core self areas, while emotional valence additionally modulated medial prefrontal cortex activity. This shows the key role of the medial prefrontal cortex in constructing the ‘social-affective self’. This may help to unify disparate models of medial prefrontal cortex function, demonstrating its role in coordinating multiple processes—self-referential, social and affective processing—to allow the self to exist in a complex social world.

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Large-scale functional coactivation patterns reflect the structural connectivity of the medial prefrontal cortex

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsaa132 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Dale T Tovar ◽

Robert S Chavez

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Large Scale ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Structural Connectivity ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Machine Learning Techniques ◽

Affective Processing ◽

Affective Neuroscience ◽

Psychological Phenomena

Abstract The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is among the most consistently implicated brain regions in social and affective neuroscience. Yet, this region is also highly functionally heterogeneous across many domains and has diverse patterns of connectivity. The extent to which the communication of functional networks in this area is facilitated by its underlying structural connectivity fingerprint is critical for understanding how psychological phenomena are represented within this region. In the current study, we combined diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and probabilistic tractography with large-scale meta-analysis to investigate the degree to which the functional co-activation patterns of the MPFC is reflected in its underlying structural connectivity. Using unsupervised machine learning techniques, we compared parcellations between the two modalities and found congruence between parcellations at multiple spatial scales. Additionally, using connectivity and coactivation similarity analyses, we found high correspondence in voxel-to-voxel similarity between each modality across most, but not all, subregions of the MPFC. These results provide evidence that meta-analytic functional coactivation patterns are meaningfully constrained by underlying neuroanatomical connectivity and provide convergent evidence of distinct subregions within the MPFC involved in affective processing and social cognition.

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Novel Inferences in a Multidimensional Social Network Use a Grid-like Code

10.1101/2020.05.29.124651 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Seongmin A. Park ◽

Douglas S. Miller ◽

Erie D. Boorman

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Entorhinal Cortex ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Cognitive Map ◽

General Mechanism ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Flexible Behavior ◽

Discrete Problems

ABSTRACTGeneralizing experiences to guide decision making in novel situations is a hallmark of flexible behavior. It has been hypothesized such flexibility depends on a cognitive map of an environment or task, but directly linking the two has proven elusive. Here, we find that discretely sampled abstract relationships between entities in an unseen two-dimensional (2-D) social hierarchy are reconstructed into a unitary 2-D cognitive map in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. We further show that humans utilize a grid-like code in several brain regions, including entorhinal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex, for inferred direct trajectories between entities in the reconstructed abstract space during discrete decisions. Moreover, these neural grid-like codes in the entorhinal cortex predict neural decision value computations in the medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction area during choice. Collectively, these findings show that grid-like codes are used by the human brain to infer novel solutions, even in abstract and discrete problems, and suggest a general mechanism underpinning flexible decision making and generalization.

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Constitutive Genetic Deletion of Hcn1 Increases Alcohol Preference during Adolescence

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10110763 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 763

Author(s):

Michael C. Salling ◽

Neil L. Harrison

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Neuronal Excitability ◽

Cell Types ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Alcohol Preference ◽

Hcn Channels ◽

Direct Role ◽

Genetic Deletion

The hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (HCN), which underlies the hyperpolarization-activated cation current (Ih), has diverse roles in regulating neuronal excitability across cell types and brain regions. Recently, HCN channels have been implicated in preclinical models of substance abuse including alcohol. In the prefrontal cortex of rodents, HCN expression and Ih magnitude are developmentally regulated during adolescence and may be vulnerable to alcohol’s effects. In mice, binge alcohol consumption during the adolescent period results in a sustained reduction in Ih that coincides with increased alcohol consumption in adulthood, yet the direct role HCN channels have on alcohol consumption are unknown. Here, we show that the genetic deletion of Hcn1 causes an increase in alcohol preference on intermittent 2-bottle choice task in homozygous null (HCN1−/−) male mice compared to wild-type littermates without affecting saccharine or quinine preference. The targeted viral deletion of HCN1 in pyramidal neurons of the medial prefrontal cortex resulted in a gradual loss of Hcn1 expression and a reduction in Ih magnitude during adolescence, however, this did not significantly affect alcohol consumption or preference. We conclude that while HCN1 regulates alcohol preference, the genetic deletion of Hcn1 in the medial prefrontal cortex does not appear to be the locus for this effect.

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Integrating memories: Congruency and reactivation aid memory integration through reinstatement of prior knowledge

10.1101/716076 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Marlieke T.R. van Kesteren ◽

Paul Rignanese ◽

Pierre G. Gianferrara ◽

Lydia Krabbendam ◽

Martijn Meeter

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Prior Knowledge ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Temporal Lobe ◽

Knowledge Building ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Memory Integration ◽

The Brain ◽

Parahippocampal Place Area

AbstractBuilding consistent knowledge schemas that organize information and guide future learning is of great importance in everyday life. Such knowledge building is suggested to occur through reinstatement of prior knowledge during new learning in stimulus-specific brain regions. This process is proposed to yield integration of new with old memories, supported by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and medial temporal lobe (MTL). Possibly as a consequence, congruency of new information with prior knowledge is known to enhance subsequent memory. Yet, it is unknown how reactivation and congruency interact to optimize memory integration processes that lead to knowledge schemas. To investigate this question, we here used an adapted AB-AC inference paradigm in combination with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Participants first studied an AB-association followed by an AC-association, so B (a scene) and C (an object) were indirectly linked through their common association with A (an unknown pseudoword). BC-associations were either congruent or incongruent with prior knowledge (e.g. a bathduck or a hammer in a bathroom), and participants were asked to report subjective reactivation strength for B while learning AC. Behaviorally, both the congruency and reactivation measures enhanced memory integration. In the brain, these behavioral effects related to univariate and multivariate parametric effects of congruency and reactivation on activity patterns in the MTL, mPFC, and Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA). Moreover, mPFC exhibited larger connectivity with the PPA for more congruent associations. These outcomes provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying memory integration enhancement, which can be important for educational learning.Significance statementHow does our brain build knowledge through integrating information that is learned at different periods in time? This question is important in everyday learning situations such as educational settings. Using an inference paradigm, we here set out to investigate how congruency with, and active reactivation of previously learned information affects memory integration processes in the brain. Both these factors were found to relate to activity in memory-related regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus. Moreover, activity in the parahippocampal place area (PPA), assumed to reflect reinstatement of the previously learned associate, was found to predict subjective reactivation strength. These results show how we can moderate memory integration processes to enhance subsequent knowledge building.

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The development of depressogenic self-schemas: Associations with children's regional grey matter volume in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579421000341 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Pan Liu ◽

Elizabeth P. Hayden ◽

Lea R. Dougherty ◽

Hoi-Chung Leung ◽

Brandon Goldstein ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Regulatory Control ◽

Affective Processing ◽

Grey Matter Volume ◽

Imaging Data ◽

Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Matter Volume ◽

Referential Processing ◽

Cognitive Information

Abstract Cognitive theories of depression contend that biased cognitive information processing plays a causal role in the development of depression. Extensive research shows that deeper processing of negative and/or shallower processing of positive self-descriptors (i.e., negative and positive self-schemas) predicts current and future depression in adults and children. However, the neural correlates of the development of self-referent encoding are poorly understood. We examined children's self-referential processing using the self-referent encoding task (SRET) collected from 74 children at ages 6, 9, and 12; around age 10, these children also contributed structural magnetic resonance imaging data. From age 6 to age 12, both positive and negative self-referential processing showed mean-level growth, with positive self-schemas increasing relatively faster than negative ones. Further, voxel-based morphometry showed that slower growth in positive self-schemas was associated with lower regional gray matter volume (GMV) in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC). Our results suggest that smaller regional GMV within vlPFC, a critical region for regulatory control in affective processing and emotion development, may have implications for the development of depressogenic self-referential processing in mid-to-late childhood.

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Distinct Regions of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Are Associated with Self-referential Processing and Perspective Taking

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2007.19.6.935 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 19 (6) ◽

pp. 935-944 ◽

Cited By ~ 265

Author(s):

Arnaud D'Argembeau ◽

Perrine Ruby ◽

Fabienne Collette ◽

Christian Degueldre ◽

Evelyne Balteau ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Imaging Study ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

The Self ◽

The Other ◽

Person Perspective ◽

Referential Processing ◽

Third Person Perspective

The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) appears to play a prominent role in two fundamental aspects of social cognition, that is, self-referential processing and perspective taking. However, it is currently unclear whether the same or different regions of the MPFC mediate these two interdependent processes. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study sought to clarify the issue by manipulating both dimensions in a factorial design. Participants judged the extent to which trait adjectives described their own personality (e.g., “Are you sociable?”) or the personality of a close friend (e.g., “Is Caroline sociable?”) and were also asked to put themselves in the place of their friend (i.e., to take a third-person perspective) and estimate how this person would judge the adjectives, with the target of the judgments again being either the self (e.g., “According to Caroline, are you sociable?”) or the other person (e.g., “According to Caroline, is she sociable?”). We found that self-referential processing (i.e., judgments targeting the self vs. the other person) yielded activation in the ventral and dorsal anterior MPFC, whereas perspective taking (i.e., adopting the other person's perspective, rather than one's own, when making judgments) resulted in activation in the posterior dorsal MPFC; the interaction between the two dimensions yielded activation in the left dorsal MPFC. These findings show that self-referential processing and perspective taking recruit distinct regions of the MPFC and suggest that the left dorsal MPFC may be involved in decoupling one's own from other people's perspectives on the self.

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