A Neural Signature of the Bias Toward 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 be maladaptive, with self-focus a risk and maintenance factor for internalizing disorders like depression. Yet, the drive to focus on the self remains to be fully characterized. We discovered a brain pattern that when spontaneously brought online during a quick mental break predicts the desire to focus on oneself just a few seconds later. In Study 1 (19 female and 13 male human subjects), we identified a default network neural signature from pre-trial activity that predicts multiple indicators of self-focus within our sample. In Study 2 (588 female and 498 male human subjects), we applied our neural signature to independent resting-state data from the Human Connectome Project. We found that individuals who score high on internalizing, a form of maladaptive self-focus, similarly move in and out of this pattern during rest, suggesting a systematic trajectory toward self-focused thought. This is the first work to “decode” the bias to focus on the self and paves the way toward stopping maladaptive self-focus in its course.