Self Recognition

Cognitive processes we use to distinguish ourselves from others

Psychological self
Physical self

Self referential processing (processing of info relative to the self)

Representation - labelling of stimuli as self-referential
Monitoring - of self-referential stimuli
Evaluation - of self-referential stimuli
Integration - linkage of stimuli to personal context

Self-recognition of body

Self awareness - recognition of own body
Unity - experience of self as a unit
Agency - feeling of being casually involved in an action
Spatial perspectivity - location of body in space
Ownership - understanding the body as belonging to the self

Mind reading - covert mimicing of other's mental states (similar to ToM)
Emotion - convergence/experience of interoceptive (internal to an organism) and exteroceptive (external to an organism) stimuli
Autobiographical memory - integration of stimuli in personal context

Pps answer self vs other judgements
Compare BOLD signal

2006
Meta analysis
27 neuroimaging studies comparing self vs other perspective

All studies showed activation in medial regions of brains' cortex
Activation in these cortical midline structures occurred across all functional domains
Suggests commonality in cognitive processes underlying self-recognition

Indicates 3 cortical midline structure (CMS) clusters associated with self-recognition
Red = mPFC
Green = anterior cingulate cortex
Blue = posterior cingulate cortex
Suggests functional specialisation in CMS associated with self recognition but no simple mapping to different domains of seld

2007
Subtraction analysis - self vs other judgements
Pps made judgements from 1st/3rd person persepctive on extent to which an adjective applied to them/other person
Copared brain activity associated with descisions relating to self and decisions relating to perspective

When judgements made about the self = activity in dorsal anterior and ventral anterior mPFC (even if from 3rd perspective)
When judgements made in 3rd person perspective = activity in posterior dorsal mPFC (regardless of self vs other judgements)

2016
fMRI meta anlysis comparing 37 self-referential psych judgement studies to 23 self-face physical recognition studies
Found anterior mPFC and posterior cingulate cortex more activy in self-referential (psych self) vs other-referential
Posterior mPFC and lateral brain regions more activy in self-face (physical self) vs other-face
Only brain areas active for both psych and physical self processing = dosal anterior cingulate cortex/mPFC, inferior frontal gyrus/insula
Findings compatible with supramodularity view

Which brain areas are active during both judgements?

Suggests CMS activated by self-referential stimuli regardless of sensory modality

Focused awareness on thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and surrounding environment
Involves self recognition

Falcone and Jerram 2018
Meta analysis of 21 fMRI studies of minfulness meditation
Meditation vs non-mediation / rest control
Meditation = increased activity in anterior cingulate cortex, insula and globus pallidus (in basal ganglia)
Supports Northoff and Bermpohl 2004 model of self-referential processing

Areas of brain involved in same function

Broad network of interconnecting brain areas active when brain is at rest
Allows thinking to be internally directed (self-referential)

2011
2 meta analyses
Compared self-recognition and DMN studies
Found overlap between areas active during self-recogntion and DMN:
Anterior mPFC
Posterior cingulate cortex

2016
Compared brain activity in DMN and during self-referential task
Overlapping activity in mPFC and posterior cingulate cortex
BUT stronger mPFC activity for self-referential
Stronger medial and lateral parietal activation for DMN
Suggests broader processing in DMN than just self-referential
Looked at timings of self-referential activity across network in mPFC, PCC and left inferior parietal lobe (IPL)
Found self-referential processes originate in PCC but are moderated by regulatory effects of mPFC

Mood disorder, causing persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest

Common cognitive symptom of depression
Retrieve and repetitively rehearse personal content relating to past and current problems
Linked to attentional problems

2013
Reviewed 12 studies of self-related processing in patients with depression
Found dysfunctional (increased) self-recognition activity in anterior cortical midline structures

2009
+ive and -ive adjectives
Depressed compared to non-depressed
Referred to themselves or were socially desirable?
Depressed = greater activation of medial frontal gyrus within dorsomedial PFC for self-referential compared with general judgements
Increased functional connectivity in depressed between dorsomedial PFC with anterior cingulate and dorsolateral PFC but not with posterior cingulate cortex - suggests issue with connectivity

2015
Hyperconnectivity within default mode network consistent with dysfunctional self-referential thought
Hypoconnectivity between default mode network and networks involved in emotional regulation, cognitive control, attention
Black arrows = hypoconnectivity
White arrows = hyperconnectivity

Subjective awareness of initiating, executing and controlling one's own actions

Knowledge that part of your body is moving, for example

Blakemore et al 2001
Individual initiated movement (motor command), copy of command sent to other brain regions, then matched to sensory feedback from execution of movement, providing awareness of self-generated action

Match
Agency over action

Mismatch
Other agents initiated action

2008
Lateral parietal regions associated with matching outcomes to actions
Dosolateral PFC and supplementary motor area implicated in planning and action initiation
Agency not associated with medial cortical structures
Difference in mechanisms between agency and self-referential processing

2010
Activity in midline cortical structures for body ownership are absent in agency manipulations
Suggests distinct neural processing for agency compared to self-referential processing

Focused movements of hand made without conscious intention of individual
Impairment in agency - due to dissociation between intention and action

Subjective feeling that hand does not belong to individual
Impairment in body-ownership

Brain regions active during agency and body-ownership task performance

Cognitive process of discriminating between real and imagined info

1981
Uses a comparitor process - current mental info compared to characteristic traces for perceived and imagined info
Source Monitoring Framework
Derived from previous experience
Include: contextual, sensory, semantic and cognitive attributes

12 fMRI studies of reality monitoring
Associated with anterior mPFC activity

Failure to discriminate between external info from senses and info which is self-generated

2017
Patients with SCZ show reality monitoring impairment
Hallucinations associated with enhanced externalising bias (more likely to believe something imagined was perceived than something perceived being imagined)
Also show associated reality-monitoring specific dysfunction within anterior mPFC

2011
MRI (structural)
Individual differences in appearance of paracingulate sulcus (PCS)
Bilateral absence in healthy pps = less accurate in reality-monitoring tasks in lab

2015
PCS length predicts whether patients with SCZ experience hallucinations
Shorter PCS in SCZ = more likely to experience hallucinations

2016
Met-analysis of fMRI studies
Widespread activity during hallucinations
Increased acitivity in paracingulate cortex
Auditory hallucinations = auditory cortex
Visual hallucinations = visual cortex
Supports the idea the hallucinations may arise due to sensory hyperactivity plus mPFC hypoactivity - results in reality monitoring impairment