社会比较的认知神经机制研究进展与展望

Cognitive neural mechanisms of social comparison:A review

社会比较是指个体为了获得准确的自我认知,将自我与他人在某些方面进行比较的现象.本文通过总结近10年来采用功能磁共振成像和事件相关电位(event-related potential,ERP)技术进行的社会比较相关研究,从空间定位和时间进程两方面探讨了社会比较的认知神经机制.研究发现,与社会比较相关的脑区可分为与上行社会比较相关的背侧前扣带回、背外侧前额叶、前脑岛和杏仁核,以及与下行社会比较相关的腹侧纹状体和腹内侧前额叶皮层.此外,通过对各脑区功能的进一步整理认为,大脑的奖赏和疼痛回路、心智化网络以及共情网络可能参与社会比较过程,其中心智化网络参与社会比较的"选择"、"对比"、"评价"3个阶段,奖赏和疼痛回路参与"对比"和"评价"两个阶段,而共情网络则仅参与"评价"阶段.关于社会比较加工的时间进程,ERP研究表明,P2、FRN(feedback-related negativity)以及P300和LPC(late positive component)分别反映社会比较结果加工的早、中、晚期阶段.最后,对当前社会比较研究的局限及未来的研究方向进行了探讨,提出未来有必要进一步考察更加复杂情景下社会比较的认知神经机制,以及个体差异和社会因素影响社会比较的机制.

Social comparison refers to the psychological phenomenon in which individuals compare themselves with others in some respects for accurate self-evaluation.It plays an important role in making reasonable decisions,building good interpersonal relationships,forming one’s self-concept,and regulating negative emotions.However,comparing with others who are better than oneself may lower one’s self-esteem and subjective well-being.Therefore,examining its psychological and neural mechanisms has important theoretical and practical implications.According to the selective accessibility model,social comparison can be divided into three stages:Selection,comparison,and evaluation.In the first stage,individuals choose the objects and fields of comparison,actively search or passively receive comparative information;in the second stage,individuals compare themselves with others based on their own goals and previous experience;in the third stage,individuals evaluate relative self with corresponding emotional and behavioral responses.The comparison stage,which is the second stage,is the most critical,as it directly determines the outcome evaluation.Although researchers have proposed different theoretical models to explain the mechanisms of social comparison,most of them have remained at the behavioral level.In recent years,more and more researchers have begun to explore the neural mechanisms of social comparison using functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)and eventrelated potential(ERP)techniques.In this article,we reviewed studies on the neural mechanisms of social comparison in the past decades from the perspectives of spatial localization and temporal process.The findings of fMRI studies on spatial characteristics indicate that the brain regions related to social comparison mainly include the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex(dACC),dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(dlPFC),anterior insula(AI),and amygdala,which are associated with upward comparison(with others who are better than oneself),and the ventral striatum(VS)and ventromedial prefrontal cortex(vmPFC),which are associated with downward comparison(with others who are worse than oneself).Further organization of the functions of related brain regions proposes that the reward and pain networks,the mentalizing network,and the empathy network may be involved in different stages of social comparison.The mentalizing network is involved in the"selection","comparison",and"evaluation"stages;the reward and pain networks are involved in the"comparison"and"evaluation"stages;while the empathy network is only involved in the"evaluation"stage.For temporal characteristics,the findings of ERP studies indicate that P2,feedback-related negativity(FRN),and P300/late positive component(LPC)reflect the early,middle,and late processing stages of comparison outcome evaluation,respectively.Finally,we discuss the limitations of the current social comparison research and propose that it is necessary to further investigate the neural mechanisms of social comparison in more complicated situations,as well as the mechanisms of individual differences and social factors affecting social comparison in the future.