Dartmouth researchers examine brain responses to social feedback
Humans often respond to social interactions by forming evaluations about themselves and the people around them. Self-esteem, an attitude based on positive or negative aspects of oneself, represents a major component of this response. Certain regions of the brain have been linked to social feedback, including the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Dartmouth professor of psychological and brain sciences Todd Heatherton and his research team recently examined the brain response to social feedback. Their findings were published last month in the Cerebral Cortex.
Prior work suggests that certain regions along the cortical midline are sensitive to different aspects of social approval and disapproval, but it is still for the most part unknown as to which parts of this structure permit social feedback processing.
The research team examined neural responses to social feedback in low and high self-esteem individuals. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at three brain regions-the vACC/mPFC, the dorsal anterior cingulated cortex (dACC), and a separate region of the dACC-and determined changes in brain activity.
Fifty participants had their own pictures taken, then were shown photographs of other strangers (facial stimuli). The participants were asked to decide if they would like the people pictured (yes/no) or if the people pictured would like the participants (yes/no). After a delay, fabricated feedback would be given telling whether the person pictured claimed to like or dislike the participant based on the photograph.
According to the article, although high and low self-esteem participants received comparable amounts of “yes” and “no” responses, the results from the fMRI scanning revealed that individuals with high self-esteem generated a significantly larger estimate of positive feedback than lower self-esteem individuals.
Results suggest that individuals with low self-esteem show greater differential response along the ventral cortical midline to positive than negative feedback. Specifically, the mPFC was identified as a brain region whose magnitude of response to positive versus negative feedback was predicted by self-esteem, with the same pattern of activity also observed in a second cortical midline region at the confluence of the vACC and the medial frontal gyrus.
The findings illustrate inflated perceptions of liking in high self-esteem individuals relative to the realistic low self-esteem individuals. This lines up with prior work that has associated high self-esteem individuals with behavioral biases which lead to negative interpersonal feedback. When faced with social rejection, the high self-esteem individual is likely to emphasize his or her own positive features while derogating others.
The linkages between self-esteem and psychiatric health are numerous, with self-esteem being a risk factor for major depression. Finding the neurobiological correlates of risk factors for psychiatric illnesses may shed light on the pathophysiology of these illnesses.