The neural representation of the self

Abstract

The main aim of my PhD thesis was to add knowledge about how the self (i.e., the self-concept) is represented in the brain. I completed three empirical projects that I present across three empirical chapters. In the first empirical chapter (Chapter 2), I report two fMRI experiments with a searchlight RSA approach to investigate where and how the self is represented in the brain. I found that the self is represented in the mPFC in terms of self-importance, but not self-descriptiveness. In the second empirical chapter (Chapter 3), I conducted a behavioural experiment. I used an evaluative priming paradigm to test the psychological meaning of the associative links that connect self-related concepts to the self in an associate network model of the self. I hypothesised that the associative links represent self-importance. The hypothesis was disconfirmed. In the third empirical chapter (Chapter 4), I conducted an fMRI experiment with an MVPA and RSA searchlight approach. I tested similarities and differences in neural patterns of activation for the self-reference task compared to three other tasks known to activate the mPFC, that is, the other-reference task, an autobiographical memory task, and an introspection task. I found that some patterns of activation in the mPFC are shared across the self-reference task and the other three tasks, whereas other patterns of activation are specific to the self. Taken together, the findings contribute to understanding how information about the self is represented in the brain and open up new research directions.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Marie Levorsen: orcid.org/0000-0003-1158-1659

ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

Catalogue record

Export record