Self-Other Mergence in the Frontal Cortex during Cooperation and Competition
Open accessAbstract
To survive, humans must estimate their own ability and the abilities of others. We found that, although people estimated their abilities on the basis of their own performance in a rational manner, their estimates of themselves were partly merged with the performance of others. Reciprocally, their ability estimates for others also reflected their own, as well as the others', performance. Self-other mergence operated in a context-dependent manner: interacting with high or low performers, respectively, enhanced and diminished own ability estimates in cooperative contexts, but the opposite occurred in competitive contexts. Self-other mergence not only influenced subjective evaluations, it also affected how people subsequently objectively adjusted their performance. Perigenual anterior cingulate cortex tracked one's own performance. Dorsomedial frontal area 9 tracked others' performances, but also integrated contextual and self-related information. Self-other mergence increased with the strength of self and other representations in area 9, suggesting it carries interdependent representations of self and other.
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Recent brain imaging studies suggest that propositional confidence formation in self and other draws on distinct brain networks, but dorsomedial PFC may act as a common node for furnishing model-based information for both metacognition and mentalizing.
“Recent brain imaging studies suggest that propositional confidence formation in self and other draws on distinct brain networks (Bang et al. 2022, Jiang et al. 2022), but dorsomedial PFC may act as a common node for furnishing model-based information for both metacognition and mentalizing ( Jiang et al. 2022, Wittmann et al. 2016).”
From Metacognition and Confidence: A Review and Synthesis (2024) · cites this paper as Wittmann et al. 2016
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredRegions involved in theory of mind, including vmPFC, dorsomedial PFC, and temporoparietal junction, may support self-models that contribute to model-based metacognition.
“We can also advance the hypothesis that regions involved in theory of mind-including vmPFC, dorsomedial PFC, and temporoparietal junction-may support self-models that contribute to model-based metacognition (Vaccaro & Fleming 2018, Wittmann et al. 2016).”
From Metacognition and Confidence: A Review and Synthesis (2024) · cites this paper as Wittmann et al. 2016
The Introduction and Discussion report that medial frontal regions track estimates of one’s own and others’ abilities, and the Results identify area 9 as part of the theory-of-mind network. This supports a link between social-cognition regions and representations of the self, but the paper does not establish the proposed contribution to model-based metacognition or identify the temporoparietal junction as supporting it. The Discussion says the study separated feedback-guided ability learning from introspective metacognitive estimation. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredvmPFC and precuneus integrate local confidence over longer timescales to track aggregate self-performance.
“Global confidence was informed by local confidence fluctuations during the previous block, and using fMRI, it was found that vmPFC and precuneus integrate local confidence over longer timescales to track aggregate self-performance (Rouault & Fleming 2020, Wittmann et al. 2016).”
From Metacognition and Confidence: A Review and Synthesis (2024) · cites this paper as Wittmann et al. 2016
The Results (page unavailable) report that pgACC tracked recent self-performance history and that this signal related to estimates of one’s own ability. They describe recency-weighted performance feedback, not the integration of local confidence over longer timescales; they do not identify the precuneus as carrying that signal. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredWhen tracking the performance of oneself and others, people sometimes merge their feedback with that of others.
“Wittmann et al. (2016) found that when tracking the performance of oneself and others, people sometimes merged their feedback with that of others.”
From Metacognition and Confidence: A Review and Synthesis (2024) · cites this paper as Wittmann et al. 2016
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Wittmann, M. K., Kolling, N., Faber, N. S., Scholl, J., Nelissen, N., & Rushworth, M. F. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Warneford Hospital (GB)
- John Radcliffe Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Wittmann, Marco K.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-07
- Volume
- 91
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 482-493
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4961240
- OpenAlex
- W2507105795
- Cited by
- 168
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 8.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (09275/Z/10/Z, 096589/Z/11/Z, WT100973AIA)
- Economic and Social Research Council (1501067)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- self and other representations, cooperation, competition, ability estimation, pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, frontal cortex, social cognition, performance adjustment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Female, Frontal Lobe, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Interpersonal Relations, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Social Behavior, Young Adult
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