The self and our perception of its synchrony - Beyond internal and external cognition.

The self is the core of our mental life which connects one's inner mental life with the external perception. Since synchrony is a key feature of the biological world and its various species, what role does it play for humans? We conducted a large-scale psychological study (n = 1072) combining newly developed visual analogue scales (VAS) for the perception of synchrony and internal and external cognition complemented by several psychological questionnaires. Overall, our findings showed close connection of the perception of synchrony of the self with both internal (i.e., body and cognition) and external (i.e., others, environment/nature) synchrony being associated positively with adaptive and negatively with maladaptive traits of self. Moreover, we have demonstrated how external (i.e., life events like the COVID-19 pandemic) variables modulate the perception of the self's internal-external synchrony. These findings suggest how synchrony with self plays a central role during times of uncertainty.

Abnormal global signal topography of self modulates emotion dysregulation in major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex mental disorder featured by an increased focus on the self and emotion dysregulation whose interaction remains unclear, though. At the same time, various studies observed abnormal representation of global fMRI brain activity in specifically those regions, e.g., cortical midline structure (CMS) in MDD that are associated with the self. Are the self and its impact on emotion regulation related to global brain activity unevenly represented in CMS relative to non-CMS? Addressing this yet open question is the main goal of our study. We here investigate post-acute treatment responder MDD and healthy controls in fMRI during an emotion task involving both attention and reappraisal of negative and neutral stimuli. We first demonstrate abnormal emotion regulation with increased negative emotion severity on the behavioral level. Next, focusing on a recently established three-layer topography of self, we show increased representation of global fMRI brain activity in specifically those regions mediating the mental (CMS) and exteroceptive (Right temporo-parietal junction and mPFC) self in post-acute MDD during the emotion task. Applying a complex statistical model, namely multinomial regression analyses, we show that increased global infra-slow neural activity in the regions of the mental and exteroceptive self modulates the behavioral measures of specifically negative emotion regulation (emotion attention and reappraisal/suppression). Together, we demonstrate increased representation of global brain activity in regions of the mental and exteroceptive self, including their modulation of negative emotion dysregulation in specifically the infra-slow frequency range (0.01 to 0.1 Hz) of post-acute MDD. These findings support the assumption that the global infra-slow neural basis of the increased self-focus in MDD may take on the role as basic disturbance in that it generates the abnormal regulation of negative emotions.