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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2007 Sep 7.
Published in final edited form as: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2007;31(4):585–596. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2006.12.003

Table 1.

Examples of experimental tasks that converge on (a.) feature-based (ventral MPFC—ACC—subcortical) and (b.) introspective (dorsal—ventral MPFC, dorsorostral ACC and PCC) appraisal of self-relevance

(a.) Biased stimulus features that commonly evoke self-relevance (1—3)
 1. Different colored squares were rapidly presented on a screen, to which participants responded by squeezing a pneumatic bulb every time they saw a randomly interspersed green or blue target square. After responding to a target, participants saw an image of a coin with a monetary value superimposed (varying in magnitude across blocks). Ventral MPFC response was modulated by polar magnitudes of gain and loss outcome, whereas limbic and paralimbic structures were modulated by absolute presence of gain [9].
 2. Affectively valent facial stimuli (Ekman’s series) were presented center-screen with bars in the left and right periphery that varied in respective orientation, followed by a fixation phase in which the face and bars were masked. In attended trials, participants were to decide whether the faces were male or female, and in unattended trials, whether the bars were of similar orientation. The attention to face task evoked ventral MPFC, paralimbic, and limbic substrata [13].
 3. Participants performed three attentional tasks (attend to stimulus unpleasantness, stimulus location, and a control) at two different laser intensity levels (noxious and innocuous). During the ‘attention to unpleasantness’ task participants were instructed to selectively attend to the unpleasantness of laser pulses and provide a pain rating. Ventral and orbital MPFC, paralimbic, and limbic responses were observed during attention to pain magnitude [16].
(b.) Self-referential tasks that commonly evoke introspective self-relevance (4—6)
 4. Participants performed two appraisal tasks (internally versus externally cued decisions) while viewing negative, positive, and neutral valence pictures from the IAPS. For the internally cued appraisal task, participants were to appraise how the picture made them feel (pleasant, unpleasant, or uncertain/neutral), which evoked a dorsal MPFC—dorsorostral ACC—PCC response [56].
 5. Participants performed three appraisal tasks (self preference, significant other preference, and a control) while viewing names of different foods. For both the self-appraisal task, participants were asked to read the food name and decide whether or not they themselves like to eat that food, which evoked dorsal MPFC—dorsorostral ACC—PCC response (as did the significant other appraisal task) [59].
 6. Participants performed three appraisal tasks (self-preference, subjective, and a control) while matching one of two distinctly colored reference squares against a third target colored square. For the self-preference task, participants were asked to decide which color of the two reference squares they preferred in combination with the color of the target square, which evoked a dorsal—ventral MPFC—dorsorostral ACC—PCC response [60].