58 Chapter 3 While there is a dearth of studies on neural circuitry supporting self- and other-referential processing during prolonged eye gazing to the self and others, neuroimaging studies have identified a consistent network of regions that responds to static pictures or judgements of the self and others, consisting of distinct parts of the medial prefrontal cortex, insula, temporoparietal junction (TPJ), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and cuneus (D’Argembeau, 2013; Denny et al., 2012; Lemogne et al., 2011; Murray et al., 2012; Northoff et al., 2006; van der Meer et al., 2010). Especially the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) seem to lay at opposite ends of a functional spectrum representing the processing of affective self-relevant and other-relevant information, respectively (Denny et al., 2012). Literature on the association between CEM and neural responses to self- and other-related content is limited to the finding that people with a history of CEM exhibited enhanced amygdala reactivity in response to neutral and emotional faces (Dannlowski et al., 2012; Tottenham et al., 2011; van Harmelen et al., 2013). Only a few studies have examined whether a history of CEM is associated with neural responses to self-related content (Puetz et al., 2021; Talmon et al., 2021), but none of them examined the relationship between a history of CEM and gazing into one’s own and others’ eyes. This is striking, since eye contact with others is fundamental to our daily lives and plays an important role in our social connections with others (Emery, 2000). In addition, connecting with ourselves (e.g., via a mirror) elicits powerful affective and physiological responses, which facilitates identification and mitigation of one’s (maladaptive) responses when being confronted with oneself (Baldwin, 1996; Vergallito et al., 2020). To better understand processes supporting eye contact with the self and others in individuals with a history of CEM, we examined associations between self-reported CEM and participants’ mood, gaze, and neural responses to direct and averted gaze of themselves and an unfamiliar other adult. First, we expected that people reporting higher levels of CEM would report lower mood after direct (versus averted) gaze videos, and that they would gaze less often into the eyes of self and others compared with people who report lower levels of CEM. Given that there are no studies examining the association between experienced CEM and people’s neural responses to gazing into one’s own and others’ eyes, our neuroimaging analyses are exploratory. Examining how individuals with a history of CEM respond to their own or other people’s direct gaze might not only yield new insights in fundamental processes of human nature, but may also contribute to new interventions for individuals in which self and other views are severely hampered.
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