Self-Other Mergence in the Frontal Cortex during Cooperation and Competition

• Published in: Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 91; no. 2; pp. 482 - 493
• Main Authors: Wittmann, Marco K., Kolling, Nils, Faber, Nadira S., Scholl, Jacqueline, Nelissen, Natalie, Rushworth, Matthew F.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 20.07.2016; Elsevier Limited; Cell Press
• Subjects: Adult; Brain Mapping; Brain research; Competition; Cooperation; Data analysis; decision making; dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; Estimates; Experiments; Feedback; Female; fMRI; Frontal Lobe; Gyrus Cinguli - physiology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Interpersonal Relations; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Social Behavior; social cognition; theory of mind; Young Adult; fMRI; social cognition; theory of mind; dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; decision making; competition; cooperation
• ISSN: 0896-6273; 1097-4199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.06.022

To survive, humans must estimate their own ability and the abilities of others. We found that, although people estimated their abilities on the basis of their own performance in a rational manner, their estimates of themselves were partly merged with the performance of others. Reciprocally, their ability estimates for others also reflected their own, as well as the others’, performance. Self-other mergence operated in a context-dependent manner: interacting with high or low performers, respectively, enhanced and diminished own ability estimates in cooperative contexts, but the opposite occurred in competitive contexts. Self-other mergence not only influenced subjective evaluations, it also affected how people subsequently objectively adjusted their performance. Perigenual anterior cingulate cortex tracked one’s own performance. Dorsomedial frontal area 9 tracked others’ performances, but also integrated contextual and self-related information. Self-other mergence increased with the strength of self and other representations in area 9, suggesting it carries interdependent representations of self and other. •People confuse their own performance with the performance of others•Cooperation leads to positive and competition to negative self-other confusion•Confusion is reflected in area 9 indicating interdependent self-other processing•Learning from own performance history is represented in perigenual ACC Wittmann et al. find that we confuse own performance with the performance of others, depending on whether we cooperate or compete with them. This confusion is reflected in area 9, indicating it interdependently processes information about ourselves and others.