University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2013 Apr;25(4):613-22. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00343. Epub 2012 Dec 18.
One of the most robust ways that people protect themselves from social-evaluative threat is by emphasizing the desirability of their personal characteristics, yet the neural underpinnings of this fundamental process are unknown. The current fMRI study addresses this question by examining self-evaluations of desirability (in comparison with other people) as a response to threat. Participants judged how much personality traits described themselves in comparison with their average peer. These judgments were preceded by threatening or nonthreatening social-evaluative feedback. Self-evaluations made in response to threat significantly increased activation in a number of regions including the OFC, medial pFC, lateral pFC, amygdala, and insula. Individual differences in the extent to which threat increased desirability were significantly correlated with medial OFC activity. This is the first study to examine the neural associations of a fundamental self-protection strategy: responding to threat by emphasizing the self's desirability. Although neural research has separately examined self-evaluation processes from the regulation of social-evaluative threat, little is known about the interplay between the two. The findings build on this previous research by showing that regions, often associated with self-evaluation, are modulated by the degree to which people respond to threat by emphasizing their own desirability.
人们保护自己免受社会评价威胁的最有效方法之一是强调个人特征的可取性，但这一基本过程的神经基础尚不清楚。本 fMRI 研究通过考察自我评估的可取性（与他人相比）作为对威胁的反应来解决这个问题。参与者判断描述自己的人格特质与自己平均水平的同龄人相比有多大程度的相似。这些判断之前是有威胁的或没有威胁的社会评价反馈。对威胁做出的自我评估显著增加了包括眶额皮层、内侧前额叶皮层、外侧前额叶皮层、杏仁核和岛叶在内的许多区域的激活。威胁增加可取性的程度的个体差异与内侧眶额皮层活动显著相关。这是第一项研究，探讨了一种基本的自我保护策略的神经关联：通过强调自我的可取性来应对威胁。尽管神经研究已经分别从社会评价威胁的调节方面研究了自我评估过程，但对两者之间的相互作用知之甚少。这些发现通过表明，通常与自我评估相关的区域会受到人们通过强调自己的可取性来应对威胁的程度的调节，从而建立在之前的研究基础上。
