Trends in Neurosciences
Volume 40, Issue 11, November 2017, Pages 643-653
Journal home page for Trends in Neurosciences

Opinion
Self as Object: Emerging Trends in Self Research

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2017.09.002Get rights and content

Trends

New paradigms have emerged from psychology, neuroeconomics, embodied cognition, and social neuroscience that provide objective measures of the self.

Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies using these new paradigms have revealed central roles for three brain networks in self-processing: a core ‘self network’ (medial prefrontal regions), a cognitive control network (lateral PFC and superior temporal sulcus), and a salience network (insula, amygdala, and striatum).

Self-processing has also been gaining increased attention in neuropsychiatric research, because initial evidence suggests the self is altered in almost all psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, and personality disorders.

Self representation is fundamental to mental functions. While the self has mostly been studied in traditional psychophilosophical terms (‘self as subject’), recent laboratory work suggests that the self can be measured quantitatively by assessing biases towards self-associated stimuli (‘self as object’). Here, we summarize new quantitative paradigms for assessing the self, drawn from psychology, neuroeconomics, embodied cognition, and social neuroscience. We then propose a neural model of the self as an emerging property of interactions between a core ‘self network’ (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex; mPFC), a cognitive control network [e.g., dorsolateral (dl)PFC], and a salience network (e.g., insula). This framework not only represents a step forward in self research, but also has important clinical significance, resonating recent efforts in computational psychiatry.

Section snippets

Self as Object

What is the nature of the self? This question has been central to a range of disciplines for centuries. In the early days of scientific psychology, William James proposed the existence of different aspects of the self: the ‘Me’ and the ‘I’ [1]. The former can be considered as ‘self as object’, whereas the latter refers to ‘being an agent’. The ‘Me’ self further comprises a physical, social, and spiritual self [1]. Sigmund Freud conceived of the self in terms of the ego, mediating between basic

New Paradigms for Measuring the Self

In this section, we review new paradigms related to self-processing from experimental psychology, neuroeconomics, embodied cognition, and social neuroscience, and argue that this work can provide a new quantitative approach to understanding the self in mental function and dysfunction.

Neural Model of the Self as Object

Based on the literature reviewed above, we propose a neural framework of the ‘self as object’, which considers the self as an emerging property of interactions between brain networks implementing the ‘core self’, cognitive control, and salience processing (Figure 3) [28]. These interactions across the networks reflect the relations between the strengths of cognitive representation and emotional response related to the self.

This neural model is built on the integrative property of the self. At

Concluding Remarks

We have proposed that by adopting the ‘self as object’ framework, it is possible to provide quantitative measures to characterize the self using emerging paradigms, such as perceptual matching, the trust game, embodied self, and social neuroscience paradigms. These emerging objective measures of the self can be used as a proxy for self-representation, and is supported by a proposed neural framework that considers interactions between brain networks responding to the core self, cognitive

Glossary

Alexithymia
a condition marked by impaired awareness of self emotions.
Bayesian inference
a statistical inference method in which Bayes’ theorem is used to update the probability for a hypothesis as one accumulates more evidence or information.
Computational psychiatry
an emerging interdisciplinary field that seeks to characterize mental disorders in terms of aberrant computations at multiple scales.
Embodied cognition (embodiment)
a theory that suggests that mental processes are shaped by aspects of

References (91)

  • J.P. Bhanji et al.

    Perceived control influences neural responses to setbacks and promotes persistence

    Neuron

    (2014)
  • A. Seth

    Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self

    Trends Cogn. Sci.

    (2013)
  • O. Pollatos

    Brain structures mediating cardiovascular arousal and interoceptive awareness

    Brain Res.

    (2007)
  • J. Zaki

    Overlapping activity in anterior insula during interoception and emotional experience

    Neuroimage

    (2012)
  • O. Pollatos

    Heart rate response after emotional picture presentation is modulated by interoceptive awareness

    Int. J. Psychophysiol.

    (2007)
  • X. Gu et al.

    Interoceptive inference: homeostasis and decision-making

    Trends Cogn. Sci.

    (2014)
  • H. Wimmer et al.

    Beliefs about beliefs: representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception

    Cognition

    (1983)
  • Y. Moriguchi

    Impaired self-awareness and theory of mind: an fMRI study of mentalizing in alexithymia

    Neuroimage

    (2006)
  • B. Wicker

    Both of us disgusted in My insula: the common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust

    Neuron

    (2003)
  • J. Zaki

    The anatomy of suffering: understanding the relationship between nociceptive and empathic pain

    Trends Cogn. Sci.

    (2016)
  • C. Lamm

    Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for pain

    Neuroimage

    (2011)
  • G. Northoff et al.

    Cortical midline structures and the self

    Trends Cogn. Sci.

    (2004)
  • J. Sui

    Self-reference acts as a golden thread in binding

    Trends Cogn. Sci.

    (2016)
  • T. Allison

    Social perception from visual cues: role of the STS region

    Trends Cogn. Sci.

    (2000)
  • M.J. Kim

    The structural and functional connectivity of the amygdala: from normal emotion to pathological anxiety

    Behav. Brain Res.

    (2011)
  • F. Cauda

    Functional connectivity of the insula in the resting brain

    Neuroimage

    (2011)
  • K.J. Friston

    Dynamic causal modelling

    Neuroimage

    (2003)
  • G. Northoff

    Psychopathology and pathophysiology of the self in depression – neuropsychiatric hypothesis

    J. Affect. Disord.

    (2007)
  • N.A. Groenewold

    Emotional valence modulates brain functional abnormalities in depression: evidence from a meta-analysis of fMRI studies

    Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.

    (2013)
  • M.T. Treadway et al.

    Reconsidering anhedonia in depression: lessons from translational neuroscience

    Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.

    (2011)
  • P. Delaveau

    Brain effects of antidepressants in major depression: a meta-analysis of emotional processing studies

    J. Affect. Disord.

    (2011)
  • W. James

    The Principles of Psychology

    (1890)
  • S. Freud et al.

    The Ego and the Id

    (1947)
  • D.C. Dennett

    The self as a center of narrative gravity

  • B. Hood

    The Self Illusion: Why There is No ‘You’ Inside Your Head

    (2012)
  • M. Rosenberg

    Society and the Adolescent Self-Image

    (1965)
  • T.M. Singelis

    The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals

    Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull.

    (1994)
  • J. Sui

    Super-capacity me! Super-capacity and violations of race independence for self- but not for reward-associated stimuli

    J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.

    (2015)
  • K. Kim et al.

    Extended self: spontaneous activation of medial prefrontal cortex by objects that are ‘mine’

    Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci.

    (2014)
  • J. Sui et al.

    Super-size me: self biases increase to larger stimuli

    Psychon. Bull. Rev.

    (2015)
  • M. Conway et al.

    The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system

    Psychol. Rev.

    (2000)
  • Y. Ma et al.

    Why we respond faster to the self than to others? An implicit positive association theory of self-advantage during implicit face recognition

    J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.

    (2010)
  • C.N. Macrae

    Self-relevance prioritizes access to visual awareness

    J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.

    (2017)
  • J. Sui

    Perceptual effects of social salience: evidence from self-prioritization effects on perceptual matching

    J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.

    (2012)
  • H. Keyes

    Categorical perception effects for facial identity in robustly represented familiar and self-faces: the role of configural and featural information

    Q. J. Exp. Psychol.

    (2012)
  • Cited by (90)

    • The (In)flexible self: Psychopathology, mindfulness, and neuroscience

      2023, International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
    • Central Autonomic Network Alterations in Anorexia Nervosa Following Peripheral Adrenergic Stimulation

      2023, Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text