TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential neural activity and connectivity for processing one's own face
T2 - A preliminary report
AU - Ramasubbu, Rajamannar
AU - Masalovich, Svetlana
AU - Gaxiola, Ismael
AU - Peltier, Scott
AU - Holtzheimer, Paul E.
AU - Heim, Christine
AU - Goodyear, Bradley
AU - MacQueen, Glenda
AU - Mayberg, Helen S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a Faculty Sabbatical Fellowship grant to R. Ramasubbu, MD, from the University of Calgary. The authors thank faculty and staff of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine for the strategic, technical and collegial support.
PY - 2011/11/30
Y1 - 2011/11/30
N2 - The experience of self is unique and pivotal to clinically relevant cognitive and emotional functions. However, well-controlled data on specialized brain regions and functional networks underlying the experience of self remain limited. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated neural activity and connectivity specific to processing one's own face in healthy women by examining neural responses to the pictures of the subjects' own faces in contrast to faces of their own mothers, female friends and strangers during passive viewing, emotional and self-relevance evaluations. The processing of one's own face in comparison to processing of familiar faces revealed significant activity in right anterior insula (AI) and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and less activity in right posterior cingulate/precuneus (PCC/PCu) across all tasks. Further, the seed-based correlation analysis of right AI, and left IPL, showed differential functional networks in self and familiar faces contrasts. There were no differences in valence and saliency ratings between self and familiar others. Our preliminary results suggest that the self-experience cued by self-face is processed predominantly by brain regions and related networks that link interoceptive feelings and sense of body ownership to self-awareness and less by regions of higher order functioning such as autobiographical memories.
AB - The experience of self is unique and pivotal to clinically relevant cognitive and emotional functions. However, well-controlled data on specialized brain regions and functional networks underlying the experience of self remain limited. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated neural activity and connectivity specific to processing one's own face in healthy women by examining neural responses to the pictures of the subjects' own faces in contrast to faces of their own mothers, female friends and strangers during passive viewing, emotional and self-relevance evaluations. The processing of one's own face in comparison to processing of familiar faces revealed significant activity in right anterior insula (AI) and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and less activity in right posterior cingulate/precuneus (PCC/PCu) across all tasks. Further, the seed-based correlation analysis of right AI, and left IPL, showed differential functional networks in self and familiar faces contrasts. There were no differences in valence and saliency ratings between self and familiar others. Our preliminary results suggest that the self-experience cued by self-face is processed predominantly by brain regions and related networks that link interoceptive feelings and sense of body ownership to self-awareness and less by regions of higher order functioning such as autobiographical memories.
KW - Functional magnetic resonance imaging
KW - Inferior parietal lobule
KW - Insula
KW - Self awareness
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/80054089270
U2 - 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2011.07.002
DO - 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2011.07.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 21962775
AN - SCOPUS:80054089270
SN - 0925-4927
VL - 194
SP - 130
EP - 140
JO - Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging
JF - Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging
IS - 2
ER -