Not the Master of Your Volitional Mind? The Roles of the Right Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Personality Traits in Unconscious Introjections Versus Self-Chosen Goals

Abstract

Humans are unconditionally confronted with social expectations and norms, up to a degree that they, or some of them, have a hard time recognizing what they actually want. This renders them susceptible for introjection, that is, to unwittingly or “unconsciously” mistake social expectations for self-chosen goals. Such introjections compromise an individual’s autonomy and mental health and have been shown to be more prevalent in individuals with rumination tendencies and low emotional self-awareness. In this brain imaging study, we draw on a source memory task and found that introjections, as indicated by imposed tasks that are falsely recognized as self-chosen, involved the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Notably, reduced right MPFC activation within this condition correlated with trait scores of ruminations and reduced emotional self-awareness, but also introversion. Moreover, correct recognition of tasks as self-chosen involved the right MPFC. Accordingly, the right MPFC may play a role in supporting the maintenance of psychological autonomy and counteract introjection, which individuals with certain personality traits seem to be prone to. This research has significant implications for the study of mechanisms underlying autonomous motivation, goal and norm internalization, decision-making, persuasion, education, and clinical conditions such as depression and burnout.

The Interaction between Basic Psychological Needs, Decision-Making and Life Goals among Emerging Adults in South Africa

“…The findings in the study help add to existing explanations for the content and process of life goals and aspirations in the pursuit of health and well-being among emerging adults as outlined in Figure 1. The examination of decision-making in Self-Determination Theory is novel, but preliminary findings from a recent study highlight the important role that decision-making can play in goals and aspirations using a brain imaging approach (Quirin et al 2022).…”

Personality systems interactions theory: an integrative framework complementing the study of the motivational and volitional dynamics underlying adjustment to chronic pain

“…The process of pain acceptance can be assumed to be impaired when the intensity of stress or negative affect exceeds a critical threshold and access to extension memory (i.e., self-access) is inhibited (62,83). When access to self-referential knowledge networks is hampered, individuals tend to mistake imposed duties or expectations of others for self-chosen goals, even though they do not match their own preferences-a phenomenon referred to as self-infiltration (116)(117)(118).…”

Not self-aware? Psychological antecedents and consequences of alienating from one’s actual motives, emotions, and goals

“…Right cortex stimulation via contralateral hand contraction led to lower rates of self-infiltration in the self-discrimination task (see, for example, Kuhl & Kazén, 1994), as measured by the number of low attractive goals assigned by the experimenter but confused in memory as self-selected as compared to a baseline measure. A recent pilot study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) explored potential brain sources of this effect in 17 participants (Quirin et al, 2020). Specifically, applying the same paradigm as Baumann, Kuhl, and Kazén (2005), we found that representations of self-selected goals activated the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFC), whereas representations of imposed goals activated the right ventromedial PFC, and that the amount of activity within the right ventromedial PFC cluster was inversely related to self-infiltration rates, suggesting that the right ventromedial PFC contributes to buffering alienation.…”