Self-esteem modulates dorsal anterior cingulate cortical response in self-referential processing

► The neural mechanism underlying association between levels of self-esteem and processing of self-relevant information was investigated. ► Participants finished self-reflection, other-reflection and semantic-evaluation tasks when they were scanned. ► Participants also finished Rosenberg self-esteem scale. ► There was a negative correlation between the self-esteem scores and the changes in activation of dACC in Self versus Other contrast.