CONTEXT-DEPENDENT SELF-REPRESENTATION ACROSS ACTING, HEALTH, AND DISSOCIATION

Humans flexibly modulate their self-representation across social contexts. For instance, one may present an unguarded, relaxed self among close friends but perform a professional self in front of one’s manager. The neural mechanisms supporting this context-dependent regulation remain incompletely understood. We tested whether identifying with an alternative self-state engages brain systems implicated in self-related processing using functional MRI (fMRI). Eighteen healthy participants performed an in-scanner task in which they read scripted lines from six movie characters. Each scene and sentence were presented visually, after which participants delivered the line aloud as if they were the character. Following scanning, participants rated, on a 7-point Likert scale, the extent to which they felt immersed in and identified with the enacted role. Activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) positively correlated with subjective identification ratings, suggesting that ACC contributes to transient shifts in self-representation.

Building on this finding, ongoing work examines whether ACC-centered network dynamics may differ across healthy controls, trained actors, and patients with dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder (DID). Preliminary results suggest group-level differences consistent with ACC involvement in flexible self-state regulation, though further analyses are underway. This work aims to characterise neural mechanisms supporting context-dependent self-representation and to provide insight into its alteration in dissociative pathology.