On the Role of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Self-Processing: The Valuation Hypothesis

Abstract

With the development of functional neuroimaging, important progress has been made in identifying the brain regions involved in self-related processing. One of the most consistent findings has been that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) is activated when people contemplate various aspects of themselves and their life, such their traits, experiences, preferences, abilities, and goals. Recent evidence suggests that this region may not support the act of self-reflection per se, but its precise function in self-processing remains unclear. In this article, I examine the hypothesis that the vMPFC may contribute to assign personal value or significance to self-related contents: stimuli and mental representations that refer or relate to the self tend to be assigned unique value or significance, and the function of the vMPFC may precisely be to evaluate or represent such significance. Although relatively few studies to date have directly tested this hypothesis, several lines of evidence converge to suggest that vMPFC activity during self-processing depends on the personal significance of self-related contents. First, increasing psychological distance from self-representations leads to decreased activation in the vMPFC. Second, the magnitude of vMPFC activation increases linearly with the personal importance attributed to self-representations. Third, the activity of the vMPFC is modulated by individual differences in the interest placed on self-reflection. Finally, the evidence shows that the vMPFC responds to outer aspects of self that have high personal value, such as possessions and close others. By assigning personal value to self-related contents, the vMPFC may play an important role in the construction, stabilization, and modification of self-representations, and ultimately in guiding our choices and decisions.

Reducing future fears by suppressing the brain mechanisms underlying episodic simulation

“…Over time, the mPFC thus binds typical features of similar episodes into a schematic model of the respective scenario (23,24,58). The vmPFC may further integrate such models with associated affective information, thereby contributing to the emergence of personally relevant concepts (59,60). On the one hand, these representations then foster the encoding and retrieval of information consistent with a given model (24).…”

Insight and psychosis: Functional and anatomical brain connectivity and self‐reflection in Schizophrenia

“…More specifically, the vmPFC seems to play a particularly important role in the assignment of subjective value not only in selfreflective processing, but in self-relevance processing in the broad sense (e.g. also in processes related to oneself, such as reward processing and the evaluation of personal belongings) [D'Argembeau, 2013]. Indeed, it has been reported that the vmPFC is specifically activated during mentalizing about oneself, and that the dmPFC is activated during both self-and other-relevant conditions [Mitchell et al, 2006].…”

Phase-locked theta activity evoked in patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities upon hearing own names

“…Data analysis was conducted from EEG signals recorded from the Fz electrode, because the frontal regions have been well investigated in terms of EEG responses to SON [7,15] as well as responses measured through functional magnetic resonance imaging [16].…”