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

“Another line of research has highlighted the role of the MPFC in adopting the perspective of other people and representing their mental states (Decety & Jackson, 2004; Ruby & Decety, 2003, 2004; Frith & Frith, 2003; Gallagher & Frith, 2003).”

“…previous studies of self-referential personality processing (Heatherton et al., 2006; D’Argembeau et al., 2005; Schmitz et al., 2004; Fossati et al., 2003; Kelley et al., 2002; Kjaer et al., 2002; Craik et al., 1999) and confirms that these regions are important for representing self-knowledge.”

“For instance, several studies have investigated the brain regions recruited when people evaluate the self-descriptiveness of adjectives or sentences describing personality traits (Heatherton et al., 2006; Ochsner et al., 2005; Lieberman et al., 2004; Lou et al., 2004; Macrae et al., 2004; Schmitz et al., 2004; Fossati…”

“…people evaluate the self-descriptiveness of adjectives or sentences describing personality traits (Heatherton et al., 2006; Ochsner et al., 2005; Lieberman et al., 2004; Lou et al., 2004; Macrae et al., 2004; Schmitz et al., 2004; Fossati et al., 2003; Johnson et al., 2002; Kelley et al., 2002;…”

“Furthermore, many studies have demonstrated a predominant involvement of the anterior CMS (e.g., ACC) in the processing of self-specific stimuli (D'Argembeau et al., 2005, 2007; Feinberg et al., 2010; Feinberg, 2009; Gusnard and Raichle, 2001; Han et al., 2009; Modinos et al., 2009; Ochsner et al.,…”

“…(Etkin et al., 2011, 2006; Silvetti t al., 2014), attention to emotion (Lane et al., 1997; Smith et al., 014b), self-referential processing (D’Argembeau and Ruby, 2007; usnard et al., 2001), and assessing the “affective meaning” of one’s urrent situation (i.e., situational appraisal) via…”

“…is asked to reflect upon another person, either an unfamiliar person, a relative, close friend or someone famous, while presented with trait words (D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Gutchess et al., 2007; Heatherton et al., 2006; Kelley et al., 2002; Macrae et al., 2004; Ochsner et al., 2005; Schmitz…”

“A recent functional MRI study used a factorial design to examine the neural correlates of self-reflection and perspective taking [91].”

“, 2006), or assessing one’s own personality, physical appearance, attitudes, or feelings (Craik, Moroz, & Moscovitch, 1999; D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Fossati et al., 2003; Gusnard, Akbudak, Shulman, & Raichle, 2001; Gutchess, Kensinger, & Schacter, 2007; Johnson et al., 2002; Kelley et al., 2002; Kircher et al., 2000,…”

“Among the many functions of node A, the dorsal medial frontal cortex (dMPC) appears to play a role in adopting another person’s perspective and comparing self-other perspectives (D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Denny et al., 2012).”

“This preferential tuning for self-relevant information is apparent even when the task is to think about others’ impressions of ourselves (Ochsner et al., 2005; D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Izuma et al., 2008), during on-line tracking of how our own actions influence others (Hampton et al.”

“…by D ow nloaded from https://academ ic.oup.com /scan/article-abstract/5/2-3/111/1662496 by guest on 12 M arch 2019 which connectivities and functions of different areas of the brain change as a result of experience in general and of repeated engagement in some specific cultural practices in…”

“…(MPFC; putative Brodmann’s area [BA] 10 and 32) as well as precuneus and posterior cingulate in medial posterior parietal cortex (MPPC; BA 7 and 31; D’Argembeau et al., 2005, 2007; Fink et al., 1996; Heatherton et al., 2006; Johnson et al., 2002; Kelley et al., 2002; Lieberman, Jarcho, & Satpute,…”

“In addition, parts of the right superior frontal gyrus have also been implicated in emotional self-regulation (32) and pain catastrophizing in FMS (33).”

“…studies have especially pointed to the role of left-hemispheric superior and inferior prefrontal cortex and lateral temporal cortex in semantic memory when people are required to judge trait adjectives for self-descriptiveness [Craik et al., 1999; Kelley et al., 2002; D’Argembeau et al., 2007].”

“Dispositional measures (SI Table 1) were well within published norms and comparable to previous neuroimaging studies (e.g., Lamm, Batson, et al., 2007; Lamm, Nusbaum, et al., 2007). fMRI Results”

“Sinceflowhas been characterized by reduced self-awareness (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura, 2010), we also expected regions in the medial prefrontal cortex mediating selfreferential processing (Brewer et al., 2011; D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Goldberg et al., 2006; Gusnard et al., 2001; Jenkins and…”

“…(D'Argembeau et al., 2005; Gusnard et al., 2001; Schneider et al., 2008), including during judgments of personal traits for self vs others (D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Jenkins et al., 2008), and during access to personal information from either past or prospective memory (Schacter et al.,…”

“…of the (especially left) medial prefrontal cortex, attributed to action monitoring and updating (Amodio & Frith, 2006) are engaged when considering psychological attributes (Mitchell, Banaji, & Macrae, 2005a, 2005b), especially from the viewpoint of a third person (D’Argembeau et al., 2007).”

“As mentioned above, this part of the vmPFC has been related to self-referential processing (D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Johnson et al., 2002; Kelley et al., 2002; Northoff et al., 2006).”

“…Kjaer et al., 2002; Lou et al., 2004; Macrae et al., 2004; Moran et al., 2006), differences in viewpoint perspective (e.g. first or third person) (D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Ruby and Decety, 2001; Vogeley and Fink, 2003; Vogeley et al., 2004), and mentalizing about the thoughts or actions of…”

“A series of previous experiments has associated MPFC with selfreferential processing (D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Gutchess et al., 2007, 2010;Macrae et al., 2004), and it has been hypothesized to be important for assessing the self-relevance of any type of information or representation (Northoff et al.”

“vmPFC has been specifically associated with self-reflective processing (D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Jenkins and Mitchell, 2011), and its role in ToM tasks is thought to support a simulation of what oneself would do in another’s situation (Jenkins et al.”

“Further, Newsome and associates (2010) investigated the brain activation while thinking about self from another person’s perspective using the Trait Attribution Task (modified from D’Argembeau et al., 2007).”

“The dlPFC is implicated in working memory and executive function [67], and mPFC is implicated in self-referential processes such as self-criticism in social situations [68].”

“These a priori regions of interest concerned areas in ventral and dorsal MPFC (−6, 46, −10; −6, 54, −2; −2, 56, 26; DʼArgembeau, Feyers, et al., 2008; DʼArgembeau et al., 2007) (in this study, we refer to ventral MPFC for z coordinate ≤ 10 mm and to dorsal MPFC for z coordinate > 10 mm), PCC (−2,…”

“The selective engagement of this SRP-related brain network has been demonstrated for self versus situational focus (Ochsner et al., 2004) and for self versus perspective taking (D’Argembeau et al., 2007).”

“In addition to its role in ToM, medial frontal cortex is engaged in self-referential processing (D'Argembeau et al., 2005, 2007, 2010; Mantini et al., 2007; Northoff et al., 2006).”

“…such as medial prefrontal (MPFC) and medial parietal/ posterior cingulate (PCC) cortices during selfreferential processing (Craik et al., 1999; d’Argembeau et al., 2007; Fossati et al., 2003, 2004, Heatherton et al., 2006; M. K. Johnson et al., 2006; S. C. Johnson et al., 2002, 2007; Kelley…”

“All three regions are also centrally implicated in self-referential processing (D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Northoff et al., 2011; Pfeifer et al., 2007; Pfeifer et al., 2009; Pfeifer & Peake, 2011), raising the possibility that making safe decisions in such an amplified social-evaluative context may be more salient to a…”

“Before the fMRI session, participants were asked to take a few minutes to think about their life 5 years ago (the experimenter helped them to remember this period by asking questions such as how old they were, what school they went to, and so forth) and about their present life.”

“interact (D’Argembeau et al. 2007) or where self-relevance in interpersonal contexts is represented (Schilbach et al.”

“The anterior cingulate gyrus (BA 32) was also identified in 3 of these 6 studies (D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Heatherton et al., 2006; Zhang et al., 2006).”

“Furthermore, this region tends to be more strongly activated during such judgments about oneself than about either close friends (D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Heatherton et al., 2006) or famous others (Kelley et al., 2002; D'Argembeau et al., 2005).”

“associated with processing of the intentions of others or ‘‘mentalizing’’ (Frith 2001; Kampe et al. 2003; D’Argembeau et al. 2007).”

“Contemplation of the adverse effects is restricted cognitive strategy and higher MR signal was found in the areas associated with decision-making (left ACC) (Allman et al. 2001) and self-referential processing (right MPFC) (D’Argembeau et al. 2007).”

“Because vMPFC is involved in self-referential processes (Gusnard et al., 2001; D'Argembeau et al., 2007), and in extinction of conditioned fear through interactions with amygdala circuits (LeDoux, 2000; Phelps et al., 2004), its suppression during post-emotion periods dovetails to our behavioral…”

“This pattern of recruitment is remarkably similar to the pattern of activations observed in studies on self-reflective processing (D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Farb et al., 2007; Northoff and Bermpohl, 2004; Ochsner et al., 2005, 2004a; Schmitz et al., 2004), showing that these areas, particularly the…”

“…and ACC are mainly activated in both processes, i.e., during self-referential processing (evaluation of one’s personality traits) as well as during third-person perspective taking or meta-cognitive representations (“thinking about thinking”) (Amodio and Frith, 2006; D’Argembeau et al., 2007).”

“Estimates from the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and from the right amygdala/hippocampus (HC) were additionally restricted (636 voxels and 304 voxels, respectively) to anatomical masks created using the WFU Pickatlas v2.”

“…in line with previous studies, which suggest that when making judgments about another person, people are engaged in some form of self-referential processing [Amodio and Frith, 2006; D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Johnson et al., 2006; Northoff et al., 2006; Schmitz et al., 2004; Vogeley and Fink, 2003].”

“Control over the use of the first-person perspective during self-projection (eg, D'Argembeau et al, 2007 ), employment of naturalistic dynamic visuospatial cues, and other methodological differences may potentially account for the observed difference between the current and previous studies.”

“Whereas it is traditionally suggested that computations for self and other are performed within separate populations of neurons (D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Denny et al., 2012), recent work suggests a functional organization within this region does not neatly conform to such a distinc-”

“2010), the studies that have compared the self with close others have yielded more inconsistent results (Ochsner et al. 2005; Heatherton et al. 2006; D’Argembeau et al. 2007; Vanderwal et al. 2008).”

“A key reason to look at empathy for multiple emotions under a variety of attentional conditions is that it allows for an analysis of core neural regions for empathy.”

“HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE REVIEW ARTICLE published: 04 September 2013 doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00548 Cortical midline structures and autobiographical-self processes: an activation-likelihood estimation meta-analysis”

“, even when the other person is a closer other (D’Argembeau et al., 2007, 2008; Heatherton et al., 2006; Zhu, Zhang, Fan, & Han, 2007; although see the conflicting results of Ochsner et al., 2005; Vanderwal, Hunyadi, Grupe, Connors, & Schultz, 2008).”

“In the present investigation we examine whether specific neural systems support the core properties of these two states: caring vs self-focus.”

“A pool of brain structures in the ventromedial pFC are thought to support the representation of the narrative self because those areas are engaged during a number of tasks requiring the processing of self-knowledge, self-referencing (DʼArgembeau et al., 2007;Heatherton et al., 2006; Northoff & Bermpohl, 2004), mentali…”

“Ventral parts of the medial prefrontal cortex have also been shown to become engaged when people make trait inferences about familiar others, such as close family members or friends as well as with judgements made about the self (D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Van Overwalle, 2009).”

“VMPFC is particularly recruited in tasks requiring access to affectively relevant information about the self, including personal traits judgments [21,43,84], introspection on one’s own feelings [44,46,52,69] and retrieval of emotional information from either past or prospective memory [20,91].”

“As mentioned above, the role of the mPFC in the formation of metarepresentations has been implicated in selfreferential processing (D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Fossati et al., 2003; Johnson et al., 2002; Kelley et al., 2002; Ochsner et al., 2005; Schmitz et al., 2004; Zysset et al., 2002), and in the…”

“Prior research indicates a functional distinction between the ventral and dorsal portions of MPFC, whereby ventral portions of MPFC are involved in the representation of information as self-relevant, whereas dorsal portions of MPFC are involved in the evaluation of selfrelevant information (D’Argembeau et al., 2007; G…”

“to be involved in self-referential processing (D’Argembeau et al., 2007; Han et al., 2010; Johnson et al. 2006; Zhu et al., 2007).”

“For instance, D’Argembeau et al. (2007) manipulated both self-referential processing and mentalizing and found that the left paracingulate region was a key area where these dimensions interacted.”

“The medial prefrontal cortex in particular has been implicated in emotional self-regulation [87], general self-referential activities [88] and emotion-related decision making [89].”

“In the current study, the participants may have refrained from self-reflection or abstract thinking as the intentions of the model were common and evident at the motor level [90-93].”

“, 2002) and (vi) the self-referential network (SFN) involving the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex and the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (D'Argembeau et al., 2007).”

“…et al., 2012; Van Overwalle, 2009, for reviews), impression formation (Schiller et al., 2009), thirdperson perspective taking (Ames et al., 2008; D'Argembeau et al., 2007; Ruby and Decety, 2004), and evaluative processing (Bush et al., 2000; Cunningham et al., 2004; see also Amodio and Frith,…”