Self-regulation via neural simulation

Abstract

Can taking the perspective of other people modify our own affective responses to stimuli? To address this question, we examined the neurobiological mechanisms supporting the ability to take another person's perspective and thereby emotionally experience the world as they would. We measured participants' neural activity as they attempted to predict the emotional responses of two individuals that differed in terms of their proneness to experience negative affect. Results showed that behavioral and neural signatures of negative affect (amygdala activity and a distributed multivoxel pattern reflecting affective negativity) simulated the presumed affective state of the target person. Furthermore, the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)-a region implicated in mental state inference-exhibited a perspective-dependent pattern of connectivity with the amygdala, and the multivoxel pattern of activity within the mPFC differentiated between the two targets. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on perspective-taking and self-regulation.

Keywords: amygdala; emotion regulation; mPFC; perspective-taking; simulation.

Fig. 1.

(A) Behavioral ratings of negative affect in response to negative images were higher for sensitive (vs. tough) targets. (B) right amygdala response to negative images was higher when adopting the sensitive (vs. the tough) perspective. (C) When participants adopted the sensitive (vs. tough) perspective, their neural response to negative images reflected higher levels of negative affect, measured as the level of similarity to the PINES pattern. Error bars denote within-participant SEs. (D) Participants who exhibited a greater difference in amygdala activity and PINES expression for the tough vs. sensitive target subsequently estimated greater differences in predicted negative affect for these targets.

Fig. S1.

Correlation between the multivariate neural measure of self-other similarity and the behavioral measure of self-other similarity.

Fig. 2.

The right amygdala cluster identified by contrasting the processing of negative and neutral images from the self’s perspective (Right), and the anterior mPFC region that was implicated in perspective-based regulation of amygdala activity (Left). The results suggest that the anterior mPFC up- or down-regulated amygdala activity as a function of the perspective (sensitive vs. tough) that participants adopted.