Watching My Mind Unfold vs. Yours: An fMRI Study Using a Novel Camera Technology to Examine Neural Differences in Self-Projection of Self vs. Other Perspectives

Self-projection, the capacity to re-experience the personal past and to mentally infer another person’s perspective, has been linked to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). In particular, ventral mPFC is associated with inferences about one’s own self, whereas dorsal mPFC is associated with inferences about another individual. In the present functional MRI study we examined selfprojection using a novel camera technology, which employs a sensor and timer to automatically take hundreds of photographs when worn, in order to create dynamic visuospatial cues taken from a first-person perspective. This allowed us to ask participants to self-project into the personal past or into the life of another person. We predicted that self-projection to the personal past would elicit greater activity in the ventral mPFC, whereas self-projection of another perspective would rely on dorsal mPFC. There were three main findings supporting this prediction. First, we found that self-projection to the personal past recruited greater ventral mPFC, whereas observing another person’s perspective recruited dorsal mPFC. Second, activity in ventral vs. dorsal mPFC was sensitive to parametric modulation on each trial by the ability to relive the personal past or to understand another’s perspective, respectively. Third, task-related functional connectivity analysis revealed that ventral mPFC contributed to the medial temporal lobe network linked to memory processes, whereas dorsal mPFC contributed to the frontoparietal network linked to controlled processes. In sum, these results suggest that ventral-dorsal subregions of the anterior midline are functionally dissociable and may differentially contribute to self-projection of self vs. other. Self-projection is the capacity that allows us to shift our perspective from the present moment to alternative temporal and mental locations (Buckner & Carroll, 2007; Mitchell, 2009; Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007). The neural correlates supporting temporal simulations of the personal past during autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval overlap with those supporting mental simulations of another person’s perspective during Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks (for metaanalysis see Spreng, Mar, & Kim, 2009). However, few functional neuroimaging studies have manipulated self-projection within the same individual (although see Rabin, Gilboa, Stuss, Mar, & Rosenbaum, 2009; Spreng & Grady, 2009) while also using naturalistic stimuli. In the present functional MRI (fMRI) study we examined temporal and mental forms of self-projection using a novel camera technology to create dynamic visuospatial cues which provided the opportunity to step into the personal past or another individual’s perspective. Corresponding Author: Peggy L. St. Jacques, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Box 90999, Durham, NC 27708, USA, Phone: (919) 668-2299, Fax: (919) 681-0815, [email protected]. NIH Public Access