scholarly journals Medial PFC Damage Abolishes the Self-reference Effect

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carissa L. Philippi ◽  
Melissa C. Duff ◽  
Natalie L. Denburg ◽  
Daniel Tranel ◽  
David Rudrauf
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Neural System ◽  
The Self ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Memory Advantage ◽  
Medial Pfc ◽  
Trait Judgment ◽  
Self Reference

Functional neuroimaging studies suggest that the medial PFC (mPFC) is a key component of a large-scale neural system supporting a variety of self-related processes. However, it remains unknown whether the mPFC is critical for such processes. In this study, we used a human lesion approach to examine this question. We administered a standard trait judgment paradigm [Kelley, W. M., Macrae, C. N., Wyland, C. L., Caglar, S., Inati, S., & Heatherton, T. F. Finding the self? An event-related fMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14, 785–794, 2002] to patients with focal brain damage to the mPFC. The self-reference effect (SRE), a memory advantage conferred by self-related processing, served as a measure of intact self-processing ability. We found that damage to the mPFC abolished the SRE. The results demonstrate that the mPFC is necessary for the SRE and suggest that this structure is important for self-referential processing and the neural representation of self.

scholarly journals Dissociable Neural Systems Supporting Knowledge about Human Character and Appearance in Ourselves and Others

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 2222-2230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Moran ◽  
Su Mei Lee ◽  
John D. E. Gabrieli
Keyword(s):  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Neural System ◽  
The Self ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Double Dissociation ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Processing Information ◽  
President Bush

Functional neuroimaging has identified a neural system comprising posterior cingulate (pCC) and medial prefrontal (mPFC) cortices that appears to mediate self-referential thought. It is unclear whether the two components of this system mediate similar or different psychological processes, and how specific this system is for self relative to others. In an fMRI study, we compared brain responses for evaluation of character (e.g., honest) versus appearance (e.g., svelte) for oneself, one's mother (a close other), and President Bush (a distant other). There was a double dissociation between dorsal mPFC, which was more engaged for character than appearance judgments, and pCC, which was more engaged for appearance than character judgments. A ventral region of mPFC was engaged for judgments involving one's own character and appearance, and one's mother's character, but not her appearance. A follow-up behavioral study indicated that participants rate their own character and appearance, and their mother's character, but not her appearance, as important in their self-concept. This suggests that ventral mPFC activation reflects its role in processing information relevant to the self, but not limited to the self. Thus, specific neural systems mediate specific aspects of thinking about character and appearance in oneself and in others.

scholarly journals A Meta-analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Studies of Self- and Other Judgments Reveals a Spatial Gradient for Mentalizing in Medial Prefrontal Cortex

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 1742-1752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan T. Denny ◽  
Hedy Kober ◽  
Tor D. Wager ◽  
Kevin N. Ochsner
Keyword(s):  
Functional Organization ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spatial Gradient ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Neuroimaging Data ◽  
Medial Pfc ◽  
Meta Analyses

The distinction between processes used to perceive and understand the self and others has received considerable attention in psychology and neuroscience. Brain findings highlight a role for various regions, in particular the medial PFC (mPFC), in supporting judgments about both the self and others. We performed a meta-analysis of 107 neuroimaging studies of self- and other-related judgments using multilevel kernel density analysis [Kober, H., & Wager, T. D. Meta-analyses of neuroimaging data. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews, 1, 293–300, 2010]. We sought to determine what brain regions are reliably involved in each judgment type and, in particular, what the spatial and functional organization of mPFC is with respect to them. Relative to nonmentalizing judgments, both self- and other judgments were associated with activity in mPFC, ranging from ventral to dorsal extents, as well as common activation of the left TPJ and posterior cingulate. A direct comparison between self- and other judgments revealed that ventral mPFC as well as left ventrolateral PFC and left insula were more frequently activated by self-related judgments, whereas dorsal mPFC, in addition to bilateral TPJ and cuneus, was more frequently activated by other-related judgments. Logistic regression analyses revealed that ventral and dorsal mPFC lay at opposite ends of a functional gradient: The z coordinates reported in individual studies predicted whether the study involved self- or other-related judgments, which were associated with increasingly ventral or dorsal portions of mPFC, respectively. These results argue for a distributed rather than localizationist account of mPFC organization and support an emerging view on the functional heterogeneity of mPFC.

Social group membership and an incidental ingroup-memory advantage

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-178
Author(s):  
Youngbin A Jeon ◽  
Alexis M Banquer ◽  
Anaya S Navangul ◽  
Kyungmi Kim
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
The Self ◽  
Task Demand ◽  
Memory Enhancement ◽  
Memory Suppression ◽  
Processing Information ◽  
Memory Advantage ◽  
Self Reference

Extending the self-reference effect in memory to the level of social identity, previous research showed that processing information in reference to one’s ingroup at encoding enhances memory for the information (i.e., the group-reference effect). Notably, recent work on the self-reference effect has shown that even simply co-presenting an item with self-relevant vs. other-relevant information (e.g., one’s own or another person’s name) at encoding can produce an “incidental” self-memory advantage in the absence of any task demand to evaluate the item’s self-relevancy. In three experiments, the present study examined whether this incidental self-memory advantage extends to the level of social identity using newly created, minimal groups (Experiments 1 and 2) and pre-existing groups (Experiment 3; one’s own or another study major). During encoding, participants judged the location of each target word in relation to a simultaneously presented cue (Ingroup-cue or Outgroup-cue in Experiments 1 and 3; Ingroup-cue, Outgroup-cue, or Neutral-cue in Experiment 2). Consistent across all experiments, a subsequent recognition test revealed a significant memory advantage for words that were presented with the Ingroup-cue. Crucially, this incidental ingroup-memory advantage was driven by ingroup-memory enhancement rather than outgroup-memory suppression relative to memory for words presented with the Neutral-cue (Experiment 2), and was positively correlated with self-reported levels of ingroup identification (i.e., self-investment to one’s ingroup; Experiment 3). Taken together, the present findings provide novel evidence that mere incidental associations between one’s ingroup and to-be-remembered items in a non-referential, non-evaluative encoding context can produce a memory advantage for the items.

scholarly journals Investigating a self-reference effect in musical aesthetics

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Kasdan ◽  
Amy M. Belfi
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
The Self ◽  
Close Relative ◽  
Musical Aesthetics ◽  
Musical Excerpts ◽  
Memory Advantage ◽  
Self Reference ◽  
Condition B ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

AbstractPrevious work on aesthetic experience suggests that aesthetic judgments are self-referential. The self-reference effect (SRE) is the tendency for individuals to show improved memory for items that are judged in relation to themselves. The current study sought to understand if the SRE exists for aesthetic judgments of music. Participants heard musical excerpts (classical, jazz, and electronic) and rated either a) how much they liked the music (Self condition), b) how much a close relative or friend would like the music (Other condition), or c) the genre of the music (Genre condition). After a retention interval, participants completed a recognition memory task for the musical excerpts. Participants did not show improved memory for musical excerpts encoded in the Self condition. These results extend the concept of the SRE into the domain of aesthetic judgments, but do not provide support for a memory advantage when making aesthetic judgments in relation to the self.

Social Identity: The Cause of Distinction Between Group-Reference and Self-Reference Effects

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 1409-1418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhijun Liu ◽  
Lin Wu ◽  
Chunna Hou
Keyword(s):  
Free Recall ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Memory Effect ◽  
Recall Test ◽  
The Self ◽  
Free Recall Test ◽  
Identity Salience ◽  
Memory Advantage ◽  
Possible Cause ◽  
Self Reference

We used a subliminal priming procedure to explore whether or not the intensity of identity salience facilitates the advantage of memory in distinguishing between the strength of the group-reference effect and that of the self-reference effect. In Experiment 1 (N = 124), participants were primed with in-group, out-group, or combined salience conditions before encoding adjectives with reference to the in-group and out-group, and were then subsequently given a surprise free-recall test. These results showed that the intensity of social identity could predict the memory advantage of group-reference tasks; moreover, the memory effect of group-reference tasks was strongest in the combined salience condition compared with in-group or out-group salience alone. In Experiment 2 (N = 81), we used different referential conditions and found that the intensity of social identity changed with identity salience and was a possible cause of differences between the intensity of the group-reference effect and that of the self-reference effect.

Kunst als reflexive Form und als reflektierende Bewegung

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-86
Author(s):  
Brigitte Hilmer
Keyword(s):  
Propositional Content ◽  
The Self ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Self Reference

Kunst kann dann als reflexiv interpretiert werden, wenn Reflexivität nicht auf propositionalen Gehalt oder sogar sprachliche Artikulation angewiesen ist. Reflexion tritt auf in den Modi der Selbstbeziehung des Lebendigen, des Überlegens und der Selbstreferenz im Symbolischen. Kunst ist ein Reflexionsmedium, das diese Modi beansprucht und miteinander verflicht. Eine spezifisch ästhetische Reflexivität ist von und nach Kant nach dem Vorbild der transzendentalen Reflexion und in Konkurrenz zu ihr etabliert worden. Sie läßt sich als Reflexivität des ästhetischen Urteils, als emphatisches Gemachtsein, als Rückwendung auf Wahrnehmungsvollzüge oder als Begriffsreflexion verstehen. Dabei wird die Unterscheidung von Anschauung und Verstand in deren Zusammenspiel oder Abspaltung vorausgesetzt. Von der Analogie zur transzendentalen Reflexion löst sich aber erst ein Verständnis von ästhetischer Reflexivität, das von den drei Modi und ihrer Verflechtung ausgeht.<br><br>Reflexivity does not presuppose linguistic articulation or even propositional content. If it did, art could not be called reflexive. Reflexivity can be found in the self-contact of the living, in mental reflection or in symbolic self-reference. Art is a medium which claims these different modes of reflexivity and intertwines them. Aesthetic reflexivity as such has been established by Kant and his epigones, following the model of transcendetal reflection. Thus it could be specified as the reflexive structure of aesthetic judgement, or as an emphasis on a work’s being created, or as a reference to perception itself in the process of perceiving, or as a way of reflecting concepts. Aesthetic reflexivity can only be detached from the model of transcendental reflection, if it is seen as oriented towards the interaction among the three modes of reflection mentioned above, leaving aside the difference, interplay or competition between perception and conceptual capacities.

Pèlerinages barrésiens

2013 ◽  
pp. 116-123
Author(s):  
Claire Bompaire-Evesque
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
The Self ◽  
Joan Of Arc ◽  
The Third ◽  
National Importance ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Third Stage ◽  
The Dead

This article is a inquiry about how Barrès (1862-1923) handles the religious rite of pilgrimage. Barrès stages in his writings three successive forms of pilgrimage, revealing what is sacred to him at different times. The pilgrimage to a museum or to the birthplace of an artist is typical for the egotism and the humanism of the young Barrès, expressed in the Cult of the Self (1888-1891). After his conversion to nationalism, Barrès tries to unite the sons of France and to instill in them a solemn reverence for “the earth and the dead” ; for that purpose he encourages in French Amities (1903) pilgrimages to historical places of national importance (battlefields; birthplace of Joan of Arc), building what Nora later called the Realms of Memory. The third stage of Barrès’ intellectual evolution is exemplified by The Sacred Hill (1913). In this book the writer celebrates the places where “the Spirit blows”, and proves open to a large scale of spiritual forces, reaching back to paganism and forward to integrative syncretism, which aims at unifying “the entire realm of the sacred”.

The Self-Reference Effect on Episodic Memory Recollection in Young and Older Adults and Alzheimer’s Disease

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1107-1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Lalanne ◽  
Johanna Rozenberg ◽  
Pauline Grolleau ◽  
Pascale Piolino
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Reference
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