Life science
Information system, Artificial intelligence, Neuroscience

Subconscious viewing of your own face can activate reward
pathways
Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences
Associate Professor Tamami Nakano
Researchmap https://researchmap.jp/tamaminakanoLife science

Abstract
We have found that the subliminal presentation of images of
one’s own face activates a central component of the dopamine
reward pathway, thus illuminating the mechanisms behind our
powerful ability to automatically prioritize processing of our own
face. These findings have important implications for understanding
the neural processes involved in automatic self-advantage in faceprocessing, as well as discriminating the processes involved insupraliminal (conscious) and subliminal (subconscious) facial perceptions.

▍ Background & Results
As humans, we each have a powerful ability to easily recognize
our own face and quickly react toward it -it is known as “self-faceadvantage” or “self-prioritization effect”. This effect is observed
even when we are exposed to a subliminal image of our face—
meaning we are not fully aware of it. However, little is known about
whether this advantage involves the same brain or different areasthat are activated by supraliminal presentation of our face.
To address this, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) to examine the differences between brain activity elicited bysubliminally presented images of the faces of participants and faces of others. We also examined brain activation produced by subliminally presented images of faces with modified features. As a result, we found that activation in the ventral tegmental area, which isa central component of the dopamine reward pathway, was stronger for subliminal presentations of the participant’s face comparedwith faces of others. Instead, subliminal presentation of the facesof others induced activation in the amygdala of the brain, which isknown to respond to unfamiliar and fear-related information. Thisdifference in brain responses to the face of the participant or thoseof others was consistent even when the faces were modified, aslong as the shapes of the facial features were retained.
Our findings indicate that the dopamine reward pathway is involved in enhanced processing of one’s own face even when theinformation is subliminal. Furthermore, discrimination of one’s own
face from those of others appear to rely on the information of facialparts.

Figure 1 Procedure of subliminal face presentation

Figure 2 Brain region showing activation to the self-face (Ventral Tegmental Area)▍ Significance of the research and Future perspective
These findings advance the understanding of the neural mechanisms of subliminal self-facial processing. Given that the dopamine
reward pathway is automatically involved in unconscious self-facial
processing, this research may have applications in efforts to unconsciously manipulate motivation.

P a t e n tOta, C; Nakano, T. Self-face activates the dopamine reward pathway without awareness. Cerebral Cortex. 2021; 31(10): 4420-4426. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab096
Ota, C; Nakano, T. Neural correlates of beauty retouching to enhance attractiveness of self-depictions in women. Social Neuroscience. 2021; 16 (2): 121133. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1873178
UR
L https://kitazawa-lab.jp/
K e y w o r d self-prioritization effect, dopamine, ventral tegmental area, face recognition, self-consciousness
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