Influence Of Self-reference On Reward Processing

Recently,a large number of studies have shown that the self is represented as an "integrative glue" in the brain,which has a general impact on human cognitive processes such as perception,memory,emotion and decision-making.According to previous studies,the role of the self was also found in the domain of reward,where individuals make different behavioral and neural responses when the reward is associated with the self.Previous studies have proposed three relationship models of self-related and reward-related processing: independent model,integration model and parallel processing model,which uncovering the mutual relationship between them in cognitive and neural mechanism.However,it remains unknown about How self-processing separates or interacts with reward processing.Thus,on the basis of summarizing the predecessors’ research,the present study combined with behavioral measures and the event related potential technology,through four research including six behavior experiment and an ERP experiment,to study the effect of self-reference on reward processing,and to explore the modulation of attentional resource and self-construal priming,as well as the similarities and differences between money and social rewards and the underlying cognitive and neural mechanism.Study 1 that included experiment 1 and 2,used the reward delay paradigm to examine the effect of self-reference on monetary and social reward processing with different reward values.Experiment 1 examined the behavioral performance of the subjects when they completed the monetary reward task(mental arithmetic task)under self-reference and acquaintance reference.Results of experiment 1 showed that compared with acquaintance references,participants performed better and received more monetary rewards in self-referential tasks,suggesting that there was an obvious "self-reward-enhancing effect".Experiment 2 continued to examine participants’ behavioral responses to social rewards,and also found an obvious "self-reward enhancement effect" toward social rewards.Results of study 1 preliminarily suggested that self-reference promoted individuals’ motivation to seek monetary and social rewards,and improved task performances to obtain more monetary and social rewards through cognitive efforts.This results preliminarily proved that self-processing and reward processing may conform to the parallel processing model,in which self-processing can effectively promote the individual’s motivation and efforts to seek for monetary and social rewards.Study 2 that included experiment 3 and 4,examined the moderating effects of attention resources on self-reference influenced monetary and social reward processing using the reward delay paradigm and the self-association paradigm.Experiment 3 used the visual search task to examine the participants’ behavioral responses to self-related and acquaintance-related rewards under the undistracted and distracted attentional conditions.Results of experiment 3 found that distracted attention impaired the "self-reward enhancement effect" by reducing the motivation to seek self-related rewards.Similarly,experiment 4 also found this impairment of distracted attention on the processing of social reward.The results of study 2 further demonstrated that self-referential processing affects the processing of monetary and social rewards by modulating the distribution of attention during reward processing.Self-referential processing is an elaborated processing that requires attention,and the availability of attentional resources can effectively regulate the advantages of self-processing in the pursuits of reward.Study 3 that included experiment 5 and 6 used the sentence priming paradigm to examine how self-construal priming modulated the effects of self-reference and attention resources on monetary and social reward processing.Experiment 5 examined how both the independent self and interdependent self-priming modulated the effects of self-reference and attentional resources on the monetary reward processing.Results of experiment 5 indicated that the independent self-priming enhances the individuals’ pursuit motivation for self-related rewards,and whereas the interdependent self-priming weakens the individuals’ pursuit motivation for self-related rewards.However,this moderating effect of self-construal priming was only observed in the distracted attentional conditions.Experiment 6 found similar the modulating effects of self-construal priming in social reward processing.The results of study 3 suggested that self-construal priming can effectively modulate the effects of self-referential processing on monetary and social rewards through influencing the distribution of attention.Self-construal priming changes the vicarious feelings of others’ reward results,and further regulates influences of self-reference on the processing of monetary and social reward.Study 4 that included experiment 7 adopted the ERP technology to explore the dynamic courses of attentional mechanism about self-reference influencing the monetary and social reward processing.Experiment 7 recorded the two groups of participants’(independent self and interdependent self-priming)behavioral and neural responses when they performed the visual search task under the different self-referential and attentional conditions.Results found that independent self-priming enhanced the neural response to self-related reward stimuli,suggesting that self-related reward stimuli induced greater P2 in the early automated attention stage,greater N2 pc in the selective attention stage,greater N2 in the attention control stage,and greater P3 in the value assessment stage.However,interdependent self-priming weakened neural response to self-related rewards.Results indicated that the effect of self-reference on reward processing occurred in all attention processes,which suggested that self-reference dynamically modulated the input and availability of attention.In summary,the current study systematically examined the cognitive and neural mechanisms of self-referential effects on reward processing.Results show that college students showed significant processing advantages such as better task performance for self-relevant rewards.However,such self-reward enhancement effect was weakened by the limited attentional resources in the continual processing of attentional input and dynamic allocation.Meanwhile,independent self-construal priming enhanced the self-reward enhancement effect,whereas interdependent self-construal priming weakened this effect,due to that self-construal priming regulated the dynamic distribution of attention under the self-reference condition rather than other’s reference condition.College students’ seeking mechanism for money and social rewards is similar,but their sensitivity to monetary rewards is stronger than that of social rewards.Monetary rewards can effectively resist the damage of external limited attention resource for self-reward enhancement effect.Finally,the present study has proposed the model of attention dynamic mechanism about self-reward processing,which dynamically reveals the influence of self-reference on reward processing from the early automatic attention distribution stage,the middle selective attention orientation stage,to the later attention control process.Such mode complements and develops the existing theories or modes of the relationship between self and reward.