Neural and computational processes underlying dynamic changes in self-esteem

Will, Geert‐Jan; Rutledge, Robb B.; Moutoussis, Michael; Dolan, Raymond J.

doi:10.7554/elife.28098

Cited by 117 publications

(175 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Those more fearful of negative evaluation selected significantly fewer positive attributes when asked to predict how the computer persona would describe them, but displayed no bias when making predictions about unknown others. The fact that this negative bias specifically manifested when evaluations are related to the self, suggests that individuals integrate social information differently depending on the context and focus of the evaluation, which is consistent with the cognitive models (Beck, 1971;Cooley, 1902) Computational cognitive studies have recently addressed self-evaluation (Koban et al, 2017;Will et al, 2017). So far, studies have mostly relied on associative learning models (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) to capture phenomena such as healthy people giving more weight to positive, rather than negative, information about themselves.…”

supporting

confidence: 65%

Reduced positive evidence within activated self-schema may underpin increased sensitivity to negative evaluation in socially anxious individuals

Hopkins

Dolan

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et al. 2019

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Positive self-beliefs are important for well-being, and are influenced by how others evaluate us during social interactions. Mechanistic accounts of self-beliefs have mostly relied on associative learning models. These account for choice behaviour but not for the explicit beliefs that trouble socially anxious patients. Neither do they speak to self-schemas, which underpin vulnerability according to psychological research. Here, we compared belief-based and associative computational models of social-evaluation, in individuals that varied in fear of negative evaluation (FNE). Using a novel analytic approach, ‘clinically informed model-fitting’, we replicated the finding that high-FNE participants learn faster from negative feedback about themselves. Crucially, this could be explained through reduced activation of positive self-schemas. The overall population could be characterized equally well by belief-based or associative models, but many individuals used either the one or the other perspective. Our findings have therapeutic importance, as belief activation may be used to specifically modulate learning

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supporting

confidence: 65%

Reduced positive evidence within activated self-schema may underpin increased sensitivity to negative evaluation in socially anxious individuals

Hopkins

Dolan

Button³

et al. 2019

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“…The deviation from the preferred allocation generates an "error" signal that could drive adaptive actions to reduce the size of the deviation. In much the same way as reward prediction errors 8 represent differences between expected and actual rewards and provide a basis for value-based decisions 9,10 , this social error signal could represent deviation from the preferred allocation and serve as a basis for value-based decisions in the social domain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin modulates social value representations in the amygdala

Liu

Lin

et al. 2019

Nat Neurosci

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Humans exhibit considerable variation in how they value their own interest relative to the interests of others. Deciphering the neural codes representing potential rewards for self and others is crucial for understanding social decision-making. Here we integrate computational modeling with fMRI to investigate the neural representation of social value and the modulation by oxytocin, a nine-amino acid neuropeptide, in participants evaluating monetary allocations to self and other (self-other allocations). We found that an individual's preferred self-other allocation serves as a reference-point for computing the value of potential self-other allocations. In more-prosocial participants, amygdala activity encoded a social-value-distance signal, i.e. the value dissimilarity between potential and preferred allocations. Intranasal oxytocin administration amplified this amygdala representation and increased prosocial behavior in more-individualist participants but not in more-prosocial ones. Our results reveal a neurocomputational mechanism underlying social-value representations and suggest that oxytocin may promote prosociality by modulating social-value representations in the amygdala.

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“…The evaluation of the self is an important way to be aware of how the self is perceived and to build self-image 17,34,39 . An individual’s self-image is formed and updated as a result of how the individual sees the self, as well as how others see the individual, which are respectively linked to the private and public self-image 40,41 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pay to know me in your eyes: A computational account and oxytocin modulation of social evaluation

Wang

2019

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People are eager to know and recast the self in the eyes of others, even at a personal cost. However, it remains unknown what drives people to pursue costly evaluations of the self. Here, we propose that the evaluation of the self is valuable and that such subjective value placed on evaluation drives the costly-to-know behavior. By measuring the amount of money that individuals would forgo for the opportunity to know evaluations from other people (social evaluation) or a computer program (non-social evaluation), we quantified the subjective value individuals assigned to the evaluation on the self. The results from 5 studies (n = 375) lent cognitive and computational support for this hypothesis. Furthermore, the subjective value was modulated by the source and valence of the evaluation. Participants equally valued positive and negative non-social evaluations, characterized by a shared unknown aversion computation. However, individuals computed independent unknown aversion towards positive and negative social evaluations and placed a higher value on the opportunity to know another person’s evaluation on positive than negative aspects. Such a valence-dependent valuation of the social evaluation was facilitated by oxytocin, a neuropeptide linked to linked to social feedback learning and valuation processes, which decreased the value ascribed to negative social evaluation. Taken together, the current study reveals the psychological and computational processes underlying self-image formation and updating and suggests a role of oxytocin in modulating the value of social evaluation.

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Neural and computational processes underlying dynamic changes in self-esteem

Cited by 117 publications

References 83 publications

Reduced positive evidence within activated self-schema may underpin increased sensitivity to negative evaluation in socially anxious individuals

Reduced positive evidence within activated self-schema may underpin increased sensitivity to negative evaluation in socially anxious individuals

Oxytocin modulates social value representations in the amygdala

Pay to know me in your eyes: A computational account and oxytocin modulation of social evaluation

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