A team from the University College London has created a mathematical equation that can explain how our self-esteem is shaped by what other people think of us. The work can be found in yesterday's eLife.
"Low self-esteem is a vulnerability factor for numerous psychiatric problems including eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and depression. In this study, we identified exactly what happens in the brain when self-esteem goes up and down," said the study's lead author, Geert-Jan Will, Ph.D.
In this study, the researchers had 40 healthy participants complete a social evaluation while in an MRI scanner. Once their profile was complete, they received feedback from 184 strangers (actually an algorithm), in the form of a thumbs-up (like) or thumbs-down (dislike). The strangers were sorted into different groups so that participants were able to learn and expect either positive or negative feedback. After every 2-3 trials, the participants reported on their self-esteem at that moment.
During the study, the participants expected to be liked by the strangers in the groups that most mostly gave positive feedback. However, when they received negative feedback from someone in that group, their self-esteem took a large hit.
"We found that self-esteem changes were guided not only by whether other people like you, but were especially dependent on whether you expected to be liked," Will said.
From the team's developed model of neural processes, the researchers found that the changes in self-esteem were also tied to the parts of the brain important for learning and valuation.
When combining their model with their clinical questionnaires, the researchers also found that people who had greater fluctuations in self-esteem during the task also had lower self-esteem more generally and reported more symptoms of depression and anxiety. Those people showed increased prediction error responses in a part of the brain called the insula, which was strongly coupled to activity in the part of the prefrontal cortex that explained changes in self-esteem.
From these studies, the researchers believe they may have identified a neurobiological marker where the neural activity pattern could be a sign for a range of common mental health problems. Currently, the team is continuing to study people with particularly low self-esteem, and plan to follow up by studying people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders.
Image courtesy of GreenFlames09 from United States (Brain Model 2) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.