The neural basis of self-knowledge

The neural basis of self-knowledge

Arnaud D’ArgembeauUniversity of Liège, Belgium

Workshop on Social NeuroscienceGent, 27 June 2013

γνῶθι σεαυτόν(« Know thyself »)

Outline

1. What is the self?2. Neural basis of self-knowledge

– Semantic self-knowledge– Episodic self-knowledge

3. Default mode network4. What is the role of the MPFC?5. Self-enhancement6. Self-knowledge and psychopathology

Self

Self-as-subject

Semantic self-representations

Episodic self-representations

What do we mean by “self”?

Self-as-object• “I” (James)• Core self (Damasio)• Minimal self (Gallagher)• …

• “me” (James)• Autobiographical self (Damasio)• Narrative self (Gallagher)• …

• 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 do we mean by “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-analyses of trait judgments about the self

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


Murray et al. (2012) Neurosci Biobehav Rev

17 PET or fMRI studies 25 PET or fMRI studies

Moran et al. (2006) J Cogn Neurosci

MPFC activity correlates with degrees of self-descriptiveness


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



Ruby et al. (2009) Neurobiology of Aging

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. (2012) J cogn Neurosci



Preserved self-concept in patient R:

• Self-consciousness scale revised• Positivity bias• Big Five inventory (consistency over time)• Metacognition and introspective abilities

BUT self-conceptions are rather rigid and not fully updated


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 some aspects 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

Near Far1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Past eventsFuture events

Positive Negative1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Past eventsFuture events

Temporal distance Affective valence

Ratin

gs fo

r sen

sory

det

ails

Ratin

gs fo

r sen

sory

det

ails


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 sImagine 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


Imagining personally-relevant future events

Thinking about one’s traits

Overlap


x = -4 y = 56


• Semantic self-knowledge– The MPFC is the brain area that is most commonly activated in fMRI

studies– Damage to the MPFC is associated with some impairments in self-

representation

• 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

What is going on during the “resting state”?

– Daydreaming, mind-wandering– Remembering the past, imagining the future– Attending to bodily sensations and external stimuli– …



Conjunction analysis between resting state and self-reflection

Correlation with amount of self-referential thoughts

D’Argembeau et al. (2005) NeuroImage

Self Other Social Rest02468

10Self-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)


Mind-wandering and self-related thought

Stawarczyk, Majerus, Van der Linden, & D’Argembeau (2011) PLoS ONE

What is the function of the MPFC?

• Not self-specific – Familiarity (Gilihan & Farah, 2005)– Memory retrieval and evaluation processes (Legrand & Ruby, 2009)– Meta-cognition, introspection, and mentalizing (e.g., Amodio & Frith,

2006)

Is the involvement of MPFC self-specific?

Legrand & Ruby (2009) Psychological Bulletin

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

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 self-specific?

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

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

Murray et al. (2012) Neurosci Biobehav Rev


Review of the social neuroscience literature (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



Van Overwalle (2009), HBM

Heatherton et al. (2006), SCAN

What about close others?

Vanderwal et al. (2008), NeuroImage


• 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



2006)

• 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 (cf. studies by Klein and colleagues)– 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



2006)

• Appraising and coding self-relatedness or self-relevance (e.g., Northoff & Bermpohl, 2004; Schmitz & Johnson, 2007; D’Argembeau & Salmon, 2012)


“One great splitting of the whole universe into two halves ismade by each of us; and for each of us almost all of the interest attaches to one of the halves; but we all drawthe line of division between them in a different place.When I say that we all call the two halves by the samenames, 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 mindfeels in those parts of creation which it can call me or minemay be a moral riddle, but it is a fundamental psychologicalfact. No mind can take the same interest in his neighbor’sme as in his own.” (The principles of psychology, 1890, p. 289).

William James


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

Value signals in the MPFC

• 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. (2012) 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)




x = 10

x = -2

L

L

y = 48

y = 62

L

L

Emotive investments

Epistemic investments


Neural correlates of reflecting on the meaning of personal experiences are modulated by individual differences in the value of self-reflection (Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire; Trapnell & Campbell, 1999)

x = -10 y = 62

Left IFG

Left A

x = -50Left MTG

RRQ - reflection

20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60

MP

FC(r

easo

ning

> re

mem

berin

g pa

ram

eter

est

imat

e)

-2,0

-1,5

-1,0

-0,5

0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

D’Argembeau et al. (in preparation)

Individual differences in the value attached to self-reflection

D’Argembeau et al. (in press), SCAN

Valuing outer aspects of self

Kim & Johnson (2012), SCAN

People’s identities not only include elements that are unambiguously part of them (e.g., their body and mental states) but also outer aspects of their lives, such as their family, friends, and possessions (James, 1890; Belk, 1988)

Valuing outer aspects of self

Kim & Johnson (2012), SCAN

• Still debated

• Distinct subregions of the MPFC probably support different processes that intervene in self-representation

• Ventral MPFC activity tracks the value attached to self-related contentso decreases with increasing psychological distance to self-conceptionso correlates with investments in self-conceptionso is modulated by individual differences in the value of self-reflectiono correlates with the value assigned to owned objects

• The function of the ventral MPFC may be to integrate information from various sources in order to appraise and code personal value/significance


Non-self Self

Degrees of personal value/significance


• 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

D’Argembeau et al. (2008) NeuroImage

Self-enhancement

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

Negative correlations with the above-average effect

Beer & Hughes (2010) NeuroImage

• Disturbance of self-processing is an important component of many psychological disorders

– Schizophrenia– Depression– Bipolar disorder– Autism– Social phobia– …

• DMN abnormalities are widespread across different psychological disorders

Self-knowledge and psychopathology

Disturbance of self-knowledge in schizophrenia

– Less stable trait self-knowledge (Boulanger et al., 2013)– Difficulties in remembering specific past experiences and imagining specific future

events (D’Argembeau et al., 2008)

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


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

Self-knowledge and psychopathologyModifications of patterns of MPFC activity during self-processing may underlie the restructuration of dysfunctional self-views following cognitive behavioral therapy

Yoshimura et al. (in press) SCAN

Summary

• The self is a multifaceted construct => specify which aspect(s) of the self you are studying

• Research points to the MPFC as a key neural structure underlying the ‘me’ or self-as-object

– 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 ColletteSteve MajerusPierre MaquetEric SalmonDavid Stawarczyk

University of Southern California

Antoine BecharaGui Xue

University of Geneva

Martial Van der Linden

Acknowledgments

Greater MPFC activity in response to negative feedback is associated with decreased state self-esteem

Eisenberger et al (2011). J Cogn Neurosci

Similarity of self with other


Mitchell et al. (2006) Neuron

MPFC activity is sensitive to closeness but not similarity


Krienen et al. (2010) J Neurosci

Lower self-esteem is associated with greater differential response to positive versus negative social feedbacks in the MPFC

Sommerville et al. (2010) Cerebral Cortex


Lower self-esteem is associated with greater differential response to positive versus negative social feedbacks in the MPFC

Sommerville et al. (2010) Cerebral Cortex



Lemogne et al. (in press)

The MPFC and self-referential processing in major depression

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

Documents

The neural basis of self-knowledge