The neural bases of self-knowledge - Redelijk eigenzinnig · The neural bases of self-knowledge Arnaud DArgembeau ... (« Know thyself ») Overview 1. What is the self? 2. ... words

The neural bases of self-knowledge

Arnaud D’Argembeau University of Liège, Belgium

Workshop on Social Neuroscience Gent, 18 November 2011

γνῶθι σεαυτόν (« Know thyself »)

Overview

1. What is the self?

2. Neural bases of self-knowledge

– Semantic self-knowledge

– Episodic self-knowledge

3. Default mode network

4. What is the role of the MPFC?

5. Self-enhancement

6. Self-knowledge and psychopathology

SELF

Core self Autobiographical self

Semantic self-knowledge

Episodic self-knowledge

What is the self?

Inspired from Damasio (1999)

• Semantic self-knowledge: a set of abstract representations of one’s personal attributes (e.g., traits, preferences, abilities, goals, social roles)

• Episodic self-knowledge: the ability to mentally relive past experiences and to project oneself into possible futures (“mental time travel”)

• These two forms of self-knowledge are dissociable – Patients with amnesia (e.g., Klein et al., 2002)

– Priming experiments in healthy individuals (e.g., Klein & Loftus, 1993)

What is the self?

Thinking about one’s traits

Kelley et al. (2002) J Cogn Neurosci

Neural correlates of semantic self-knowledge


Johnson et al. (2002). Brain • Self‐evaluation in the domains of mood, social interactions, cognitive and physical abilities (e.g., “I get angry easily”, “I often forget things”) • Decisions about statements of factual knowledge (e.g., “you need water to live”)

Meta-analysis

Van der Meer et al. (2010) Neurosci Biobehav Rev

Thinking about one’s traits vs. traits of other people



Moran et al. (2006) J Cogn Neurosci

MPFC activity correlates with degrees of self-relevance

You are

sociable

You are

sociable

You are

sociable

You are

sociable

D’Argembeau et al. (2007) J Cogn Neurosci

You are

clumsy

According to David, you are

clumsy

According to David, he is

clumsy

David is

clumsy


What do others think about me?


MPFC subserves diverse forms of self-reflection

Jenkins & Mitchell (2011), Social Neuroscience


MPFC damage abolishes the self-reference effect

Task: traits judgments • Self (‘does this trait describe you?’) • Other (‘does this trait describe Oprah Winfrey?’) • Case (‘is the trait capitalized?’) Recognition memory task => SRE (hits self – hits other)

Philippi et al. (in press) J cogn Neurosci

Role of the MPFC in semantic self-knowledge

• The MPFC is more active when thinking about one’s traits compared to the traits of others

• When thinking about one’s traits, the degree of MPFC activity correlates with the self-descriptiveness of the traits

• The MPFC is active when processing different kinds of semantic self-knowledge (e.g., traits, physical abilities, how we are seen by others)

• Damage to the MPFC impairs the processing of semantic self-knowledge


Neural correlates of episodic self-knowledge

Mental time travel

Amnesia: The case of K. C. (Tulving, 1985)

Tulving: “What will you be doing tomorrow?” (There is a 15-second pause) K.C.: smiles faintly, then says, “I don’t know” Tulving: “Do you remember the question?” K.C.: “About what I’ll be doing tomorrow?” Tulving: “Yes. How would you describe your state of mind when you try to think about it?” (A 5-second pause) K.C.: “Blank, I guess”


Developmental research

Episodic memory and future thinking emerge at the same time, between 3 and 5 years of age

Suddendorf & Busby (2005)


Phenomenological characteristics

D’Argembeau & Van der Linden (2004) Consciousness & Cognition

Experimental manipulations of valence and temporal distance have similar effects on past and future event representations

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Near Far

Past events

Future events

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Positive Negative

Past events

Future events

Temporal distance Affective valence

Rat

ings

fo

r se

nso

ry d

etai

ls

Rat

ings

fo

r se

nso

ry d

etai

ls



Typical task: remembering/imagining specific events (i.e., unique events that occur in a specific place and time) in response to cue words (e.g., beach)


Svoboda et al. (2006) Neuropsychologia

Meta-analysis of autobiographical memory studies

Addis et al. (2007) Neuropsychologia

Remembering past events and imagining future events rely on common neural substrates


Szpunar et al. (2007) PNAS


Cabeza & St Jacques (2007)


Neural correlates of imagining self-relevant future events

Personally-relevant future events: future events related to personal goals

(Personal Projects Inventory; Little, 1983; e.g. getting married next summer)

Non-personally-relevant future events: future events that are plausible but

not part of personal goals (e.g. going to the zoo next summer)

Routine activities (e.g. taking a shower)


Personal future

Getting married next summer

+

Daily routine

Taking a shower

Max. 5 s

jitter (4 - 12 s)

15 s

Imagine the event (with eyes closed)

Eyes closed

Identify the event

fMRI session




Personally-relevant future events > routine activities

Non-personally-relevant future events > routine activities


Personally-relevant future events > non-personally-relevant future events




3.5 s

Positive trait

dependable

I am

talkative

I am

+


I am

impatient

Positive trait

+

Positive trait

lazy


Imagining personally-relevant future events


Overlap


x = -4 y = 56


• Semantic self-knowledge – The MPFC is the brain area that has been most consistently detected

in fMRI studies

– Damage to the MPFC is associated with impaired self-processing

• Episodic self-knowledge – Involve multiple brain regions

– MPFC is associated with self-relevance

=> Although semantic and episodic forms of self-knowledge are dissociable, they both involve the MPFC

Interim conclusion

Moran et al. (2006) J Cogn Neurosci

DMN and self-related thought

Kelley et al. (2002) J Cogn Neurosci

The MPFC typically shows decreased activity relative to baseline


Gusnard & Raichle (2001) Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Default mode network


Fox et al. (2005) PNAS

Default mode network


• What is going on during “rest”?

– Daydreaming, mind-wandering, remembering, imagining

– Attending to bodily sensations and external stimuli

– Getting drowsy


Conjunction analysis between resting state and self-reflection

Correlation with amount of self-referential thoughts

D’Argembeau et al. (2005) NeuroImage

0

2

4

6

8

10

Self Other Social Rest

Self-referential thoughts


PET study • Resting state • Explicit self-reflection • Thinking about others • Thinking about social issues

In the four conditions, no stimuli were presented and no motor response was required during the scans

(Self – Other) AND (Rest – Society)

What is the function of the MPFC?

• Not self-specific – Familiarity (Gilihan & Farah, 2005)

– Memory retrieval and evaluation processes (Legrand & Ruby, 2009)

• Self-specific – Self-referential processing (coding/representation and evaluation of

self-related stimuli; Northoff & Bermpohl, 2004)

– Appraising or signaling self-relevance/personal significance (Schmitz & Johnson, 2007)

Is the involvement of MPFC not self-specific?

Legrand & Ruby (2009) Psychological Bulletin



BUT mixing of different aspects of self (trait judgments, sense of agency, recognition of one’s own face, name, etc.)

Is the involvement of MPFC not self-specific?

Van der Meer et al. (2010) Neurosci Biobehav Rev



Review of the social neuroscience litterature (Lieberman, 2010) • Mentalizing: MPFC is activated in 33% of studies; dorsal MPFC is activated in 91% of studies • Self-knowledge: MPFC is activated in 94% of studies; dorsal MPFC is activated in 53% of studies


Heatherton et al. (2006), SCAN

What about close others?

Vanderwal et al. (2008), NeuroImage



• Inconsistent findings regarding the difference in MPFC activity for self vs. close others

• But close others are often treated as “part of the self” (e.g., Aaron et al., 2004)

• Perhaps the difference in MPFC activity for self vs. close others depends on the degree to which the other is included in one’s sense of self

Cultural differences

Self > non-close other Self > mother

Zhu et al. (2007) NeuroImage



Benoit et al. (2010) NeuroImage

MPFC activity for self vs. other correlates with the degree of self-other overlap (as assessed by the correlation between self-

judgments and judgments about one’s best friend)





Activity in the MPFC at study correlates with subsequent memory performance

• Cognitive operations involved in trait self-judgments according to Legrand & Ruby (2009)

– Consideration of the question (does the trait apply to you?)

– Perception and integration of the stimulus (e.g., shyness)

– Recall of relevant situations (e.g., I blushed the last time John said something embarrassing to me, even thought I usually do not blush easily)

– Comparison or association of these recalled events with each other, which leads to a

– Generalization or the formulation of probalistic rule (e.g., most of the time I am confident and do not blush in embarrassing situations), and

– Application of the rule, which allows a conclusion to be drawn (e.g., I am not shy)

• BUT – Trait judgments do not involve the recall of past events

– Typically, trait judgments are made within 2 seconds, whereas the recall of past events takes 3-10 seconds


Does the MPFC subserve memory retrieval and evaluation processes?

Does MPFC subserve evaluation processes?

Passive viewing of words • Self-related (e.g., hometown, initials; n = 50,

white font) • Neutral (n = 400, non-self-related words in white font) • Perceptual oddball (n = 50, non-self-related words in green font)

Moran et al. (2009), Social Neuroscience


• 2 groups of participants based on their self-schema (athletic vs. scientific) • Implicit self-relevance task: viewing pictures related to athletism and science and judging whether contain people • Explicit self-relevance task: viewing adjectives related to athletism and science and judging whether they describe the self

Explicit processing of schema-relevant information

Implicit processing of schema-relevant information

Rameson et al. (2010) NeuroImage



• 2 groups of participants based on their self-schema (athletic vs. scientific) • Implicit self-relevance task: viewing pictures related to athletism and science and judging whether contain people • Explicit self-relevance task: viewing adjectives related to athletism and science and judging whether they describe the self

Neural overlap during explicit and implicit self-relevant processing

Rameson et al. (2010) NeuroImage



The MPFC might be involved in processing personal value/significance

Non-self Self Degree of personal significance


“One great splitting of the whole universe into two halves is made by each of us; and for each of us almost all of the interest attaches to one of the halves; but we all draw the line of division between them in a different place. When I say that we all call the two halves by the same names, and that those names are ‘me’ and ‘not-me ’ respectively, it will at once be seen what I mean. The altogether unique kind of interest which each human mind feels in those parts of creation which it can call me or mine may be a moral riddle, but it is a fundamental psychological fact. No mind can take the same interest in his neighbor’s me as in his own.” (The principles of psychology, 1890, p. 289).

William James

Value and the self

Value signals in the MPFC

Food

Hare et al. (2009)

Money

Kable & Glimcher (2007)

Attractive faces

O’Doherty et al. (2003)

Charitable decisions

Hare et al. (2010)

MPFC activity when people think about themselves could reflect the value they attach to the particular conception of themselves that is activated at a given moment

• People tend to devalue distant past and future selves, such that they are regarded as “others” (e.g., Pronin et al., 2008; Wilson & Ross, 2003)

Increasing psychological distance to selves

• People tend to devalue distant past and future selves, such that they are regarded as “others” (e.g., Pronin et al., 2008; Wilson & Ross, 2003)

• If MPFC is involved in valuing the self, then MPFC activity should be reduced when thinking about distant selves


D’Argembeau et al. (2008) SCAN

At present, I am

sociable

At present, David is

sociable

Five years ago, I was

sociable

Positive trait

sociable

Five years ago, David was

sociable


3.5 s

D’Argembeau et al. (2010) Social Neuroscience


Ersner-Hershfield et al. (2009) SCAN


Investments in self-views

• People possess many different beliefs and ideas about themselves and attach more or less value to particular self-views

• Investments in self-views (Pelham, 1991):

– Emotive investment: importance placed on a particular self-view

– Epistemic investment: certainty with which a particular self-view is held

• If MPFC is involved in valuing the self, then MPFC activity should correlate with people’s investments in self-views


sincere

+

lazy

+

punctual

fMRI session

3.5 s

240 traits

Self-descriptiveness judgments “To what extent does this trait describe you?” (1 = not at all; 4 = completely)

D’Argembeau et al. (in press) Cerebral Cortex


sincere

+

lazy

+

punctual

Post-scan ratings

240 traits

Emotive investment “How important is it for you to possess or not possess this trait?” (1 = not at all important; 4 = very important)

Epistemic investment “How certain are you that you possess or do not possess this trait?” (1 = not at all; 4 = completely)




F(3, 54) = 17.29, p < .001 F(3, 54) = 15.30, p < .001

RTs for self-descriptiveness judgments

x = 10

x = -2

L

L

y = 48

y = 62

L

L

Emotive investments

Epistemic investments



• Still debated

o Is it self-specific?

o Role of retrieval and evaluation processes

• MPFC activity tracks the value attached to self-views

o MPFC activity decreases with increasing psychological distance to self-conceptions

o MPFC activity correlates with investments in self-conceptions

• The MPFC may confer degrees of value to representations of the self that are stored in long-term memory


• Most people strive to create and maintain positive self-views (self-enhancement)

– Better-than-average effect

– Self-serving attributional bias

– Illusion of control

– Optimism about one’s personal future

– …

Self-enhancement

Thinking about one’s hopes and aspirations (promotion self-reflection) versus one’s duties and obligations (prevention self-reflection)

Johnson et al. (2006). SCAN

Self-enhancement

Promotion goals > prevention goals

Packer and Cunningham (2010), Social Neuroscience

Self-enhancement

Self-enhancement

Projecting oneself into specific future events: • Positive events that might happen in the near future • Positive events that might happen in the far future • Negative events that might happen in the near future • Negative events that might happen in the far future

D’Argembeau et al. (2008) NeuroImage

TMS applied to the MPFC reduces self-enhancement

Kwan et al. (2007)

Self-enhancement score: more desirable traits and less undesirable traits were ascribed to the self compared to best friend

Self-enhancement

dACC and OFC might be involved in correcting exagerated positive self-evaluations

Negative correlations with the above-average effect

Self-enhancement

Beer & Hughes (2010) NeuroImage

• Disturbance of self-processing is a major component of many psychopathological disorders – Schizophrenia

– Depression

– Bipolar disorder

– Social phobia

– …

• DMN abnormalities are widespread across different psychopathological disorders

Self-knowledge and psychopathology

Schizophrenia

Disturbance of episodic self-knowledge

D’Argembeau, Raffard, & Van der Linden, 2008, J Abnorm Psychol


Schizophrenia

Disturbance of episodic self-knowledge

Raffard, D’Argembeau et al., 2010, Consciousness and Cognition


Disturbance of episodic self-knowledge in schizophrenia – Difficulties in remembering specific past experiences and imagining specific future events

– Abnormal reminiscence bump

– Extracting meaning from past experiences and constructing a life story

Multimodal imaging (VBM, fMRI, DTI) points to the central role of the MPFC in schizophrenia (Pomarol-Clotet et al., 2010)


VBM

fMRI

DTI


Reduced MPFC activity when accessing semantic self-knowledge in schizophrenia

Holt et al. (2011) Biological Psychiatry

The MPFC does not differentiate self from others in individuals with autism


Lombardo et al. (2010) Brain


Lemogne et al. (in press)

The MPFC and self-referential processing in major depression


Lemogne et al. (in press)

The MPFC and self-referential processing in major depression


Generalized social phobia

2 types of self-referential information • 1st person: what I think about myself (e.g. “I am stupid”) • 2nd person: comments coming from another person (e.g., “You are stupid”)

Blair et al. (2011) Psych Res Neuro

Summary

• The self is a multifaceted construct => specify which aspects of the self you are studying

• Research points to the MPFC as a key neural structure underlying the autobiographical self – Semantic self-knowledge

– Episodic self-knowledge

• An important function of the MPFC may be to process personal significance/value

• Disturbances of self-knowledge in various psychopathological disorders might be due (in part) to functional and/or structural abnormalities in the MPFC

University of Liège

Fabienne Collette Steve Majerus Pierre Maquet Eric Salmon David Stawarczyk

University of Southern California

Antoine Bechara Gui Xue

University of Geneva

Martial Van der Linden Stéphane Raffard

Acknowledgments

Documents

The neural bases of self-knowledge - Redelijk eigenzinnig · The neural bases of self-knowledge Arnaud DArgembeau ... (« Know thyself ») Overview 1. What is the self? 2. ... words