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Self-other mergence and social basis functions in medial prefrontal cortex| title | Self-other mergence and social basis functions in medial prefrontal cortex |
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| start_date | 2025/10/20 |
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| schedule | 15h15 |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | Room B10 |
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| summary | Our brains need to track our own and others’ actions for navigating social environments. Failures of doing so can happen frequently depending on the relationship we are in with other people. For instance, people tend to judge members of their own team as more similar to them than members of an outgroup. Such failures of keeping self and other representations correctly calibrated have been labelled “self-other mergence” and have often been regarded as a failure of the involved associative learning mechanisms in the brain. However, the precise underlying computational and neural mechanisms are unclear. Here, I will characterize an approach to understanding the neuro-computational mechanisms underlying self-other mergence using neuroimaging, brain stimulation, and computational modelling. I will show correlational and causal evidence that dorsomedial prefrontal cortex is important for correctly calibrated representations of self and other and for keeping self-other mergence in check. I will sketch a broader theory how medial prefrontal cortex compresses information in social situations to guide decision-making effectively. I will show that self-other mergence naturally follows from this model, suggesting that it may be an adaptive by-product of simplifying decision problems. I will show evidence to suggest that such compression can indeed lead to better overall decision-making at the cost of an increased rate of self-other mergence. |
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| responsibles | Allen |
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Workflow history| from state (1) | to state | comment | date |
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| submitted | published | | 2025/10/01 06:06 UTC |
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