Neural mechanisms associated with semantic and basic self-oriented memory processes interact moderating self-esteem

Abstract

Summary Individuals constantly encounter feedback from others and process this feedback in various ways to maintain positive situational state self-esteem in relation to semantic-based or trait self-esteem. Individuals may utilize episodic or semantic-driven processes that modulate feedback in two different ways to maintain general self-esteem levels. To date, it is unclear how these processes work while individuals receive social feedback to modulate state self-esteem. Utilizing neural regions associated with semantic self-oriented and basic encoding processes (medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), respectively), in addition to time-frequency and Granger causality analyses to assess mPFC and PCC interactions, this study examined how the encoding of social feedback modulated individuals' (N = 45) post-task state self-esteem in relation to their trait self-esteem. Findings highlight the dynamic interplay between mPFC and PCC that modulate state self-esteem in relation to trait self-esteem, to maintain high self-esteem in general in the moment and over time.

Context Matters: Situational Stress Impedes Functional Reorganization of Intrinsic Brain Connectivity during Problem-Solving

“…Other frequent terms included "TOM" (theory of mind), "intentions", and "mental state", as well as "visual" and "spatial attention". We observed the broad trend that edges appeared to reflect links between functions that revolve around internally oriented processing (self or social cognition; Amey et al, 2018) and those that typically relate to problem-solving (visuospatial attention, calculation, and responding; e.g. Anderson et al 2014).…”

When Majority Men Respect Minority Women, Groups Communicate Better: A Neurological Exploration

“…EEG epoching is a procedure in which specific time-windows are extracted from the continuous EEG signal. EEG artifacts were removed via FASTER (Fully Automated Statistical Thresholding for EEG artifact Rejection; Amey et al, 2022; Forbes et al, 2018; Liu, Backer, Amey, & Forbes, 2021; Liu, Backer, Amey, Splan, et al, 2021; Nolan et al, 2010), an automated approach to cleaning EEG data that is based on multiple iterations of independent component and statistical thresholding analyses. Processing the data through iterations of thresholding analyses helps remove artifacts from the EEG data.…”

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“…When their SE is at risk, this need compels them to engage in self-affirming activities (Aronson et al, 2019;Obenza et al, 2024). According to Amey et al (2022), Individuals appear to be naturally driven to maintain positive SE, a crucial component of the self-concept, and utilize a variety of mechanisms to boost SE in response to both positive and negative self-relevant feedback. This is accomplished in two primary methods.…”

“…Adolescents notice and encrypt positive and negative feedback and then deploy negative comments post hoc to maintain high SE. Alternatively, they may encode positive feedback more deeply than negative feedback to positively bias SE (Amey et al, 2022). Mikkelsen et al (2020) mentioned that SE is closely linked to developing psychological and mental issues (Mikkelsen et al, 2020).…”