ArticleFrontiers in human neuroscience2013
On the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in self-processing: the valuation hypothesis.
Article in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 130 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
130 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Shared increased entropy of brain signals across patients with different mental illnesses: A coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.Brain imaging and behavior · 2022Pooled it
- Mindfulness in the focus of the neurosciences - The contribution of neuroimaging to the understanding of mindfulness.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Unveiling the neural underpinnings of optimism: a systematic review.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- A Functional Neuroimaging Meta-Analysis of Self-Related Processing in Schizophrenia.Frontiers in neurology · 2019Pooled it
- Neural correlates of personal goal processing during episodic future thinking and mind-wandering: An ALE meta-analysis.Human brain mapping · 2015Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Oxytocin blurs the self-other distinction during trait judgments and reduces medial prefrontal cortex responses.Human brain mapping · 2016Trial
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- A Multi-Method Meta-Analysis of Neuro-Behavioral Motor Inhibition Outcomes Across Substance-Use Problems and Related Developmental Psychopathological Conditions: A Self-Regulation Approach.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2026Article
- A Candidate EEG Spectral Index of Internally Oriented Attention: An Exploratory Comparison of Prayer and Relaxation.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Group Sparse Representation Enhances Brain Network Classification of Major Depressive Disorder in Two Chinese Cohorts.Alpha psychiatry · 2026Article
- Discrete and differentiated encoding of distinct components of spatial experience occurs within the proximodistal subfields of the dorsoventral axis of the hippocampus.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Frontocingulate-parietal-limbic circuits associated with both ruminative brooding and self-regulatory processes.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Dissociation of self and mother-related processing in abstinent heroin misusers.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Human amygdala nuclei show distinct developmental trajectories from adolescence to adulthood in functional integration with prefrontal circuitry.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Microstructural Brain Correlates of Inter-individual Differences in Respiratory Interoception.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Culture and Behaviour Management of Children in the Dental Clinic: A Scoping Review.Dentistry journal · 2025Review
- Dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions differentially impact social influence and temporal discounting.PLoS biology · 2025Article
70 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Abstract
With the development of functional neuroimaging, important progress has been made in identifying the brain regions involved in self-related processing. One of the most consistent findings has been that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) is activated when people contemplate various aspects of themselves and their life, such their traits, experiences, preferences, abilities, and goals. Recent evidence suggests that this region may not support the act of self-reflection per se, but its precise function in self-processing remains unclear. In this article, I examine the hypothesis that the vMPFC may contribute to assign personal value or significance to self-related contents: stimuli and mental representations that refer or relate to the self tend to be assigned unique value or significance, and the function of the vMPFC may precisely be to evaluate or represent such significance. Although relatively few studies to date have directly tested this hypothesis, several lines of evidence converge to suggest that vMPFC activity during self-processing depends on the personal significance of self-related contents. First, increasing psychological distance from self-representations leads to decreased activation in the vMPFC. Second, the magnitude of vMPFC activation increases linearly with the personal importance attributed to self-representations. Third, the activity of the vMPFC is modulated by individual differences in the interest placed on self-reflection. Finally, the evidence shows that the vMPFC responds to outer aspects of self that have high personal value, such as possessions and close others. By assigning personal value to self-related contents, the vMPFC may play an important role in the construction, stabilization, and modification of self-representations, and ultimately in guiding our choices and decisions.
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