Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2019 Jan 1;29(1):253-264. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhx329.
Social comparison plays an important role in our daily life. Several studies have investigated the neural mechanism of social comparison; however, their conclusions remain controversial. The present study explored the neural correlates of intelligence comparison and nonsocial size comparison using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a distance effect paradigm. We found that both intelligence and size comparisons obeyed the behavioral distance effect-longer response times for near than far distances and this effect involved an overlapping frontal network including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and insula. In addition, compared with size comparisons, intelligence comparisons elicited increased activity in the precuneus and angular gyrus, but decreased activity in the inferior parietal lobe. Furthermore, the analysis of seed-based functional connectivity complemented these neural commonalities and differences. Our findings suggest that social and nonsocial comparisons may rely on a common core mechanism, but this mechanism may be supplemented by different domain-specific cognitive components.
社会比较在我们的日常生活中起着重要作用。已有多项研究探讨了社会比较的神经机制，但结论仍存在争议。本研究采用功能磁共振成像和距离效应范式，探索了智力比较和非社会性大小比较的神经关联。我们发现，智力比较和大小比较都符合行为距离效应——近距的反应时间长于远距，这种效应涉及到一个重叠的额前网络，包括背内侧前额叶皮层和脑岛。此外，与大小比较相比，智力比较在楔前叶和角回引起了更高的活动，而在顶下小叶引起了更低的活动。此外，基于种子的功能连接分析补充了这些神经共性和差异。我们的研究结果表明，社会比较和非社会性比较可能依赖于一个共同的核心机制，但该机制可能会受到不同的特定于领域的认知成分的补充。
