Similarity to the self influences cortical recruitment during impression formation.

ABSTRACT: Prior work has shown that whether or not someone is similar to the self influences person memory--a type of self-reference effect for others. In this study, we were interested in understanding the neural regions supporting the generation of impressions and subsequent memory for targets who vary in similarity to the self. Participants underwent fMRI scanning while forming positive or negative impressions of face-behavior pairs. We tested participants' memory for their generated impressions and then back-sorted the impression trials (encoding) into different levels of self-similarity (high, medium, low) using a self-similarity posttest that came after recognition. Extending prior behavioral work, our data confirmed our hypothesis that memory would be highest for self-similar others and lowes

SUBMITTER: Leshikar ED 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4786455 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature