A Neural Signature of the Bias Towards Self-Focus

Abstract

People are remarkably self-focused, disproportionately choosing to think about themselves relative to other topics. Self-focus can be adaptive, helping individuals fulfill their needs. It can also go haywire, with maladaptive self-focus a risk and maintenance factor for internalizing disorders like depression. Yet, the neural mechanism driving people to focus on themselves remains unknown. This gap is due to timing: while prior research measures neural activity the moment participants are instructed to self-reflect, a brain state that precedes, or nudges, the bias to spontaneously focus on the self remains undetermined. We identified a default network neural signature from pre-trial activity that predicts 1) multiple indicators of self-focus within our sample and 2) internalizing symptoms in a separate sample from the Human Connectome Project. This is the first work to "decode" the bias to focus on the self and paves the way towards stopping maladaptive self-focus in its course.