An EEG study on the effect of self-relevant possessive pronoun: Self-referential content and first-person perspective

The present study aimed at examining the brain mechanism of the effect of self-relevant possessive pronoun (SRPP). Eighteen participants observed the following stimuli: “wo de” (Chinese for “my”/“mine”), “ta de” (Chinese for “his”), “wo” (Chinese for “I”/“me”), “ta” (Chinese for “he”/“him”), small circle and big circle. Relative to “ta de”, “wo” and “ta”, “wo de” elicited a significantly larger P300 amplitude, i.e. the effect of SRPP. The results showed that the effect was not due to the difference between the characters that comprise “wo de” and the characters that comprise “ta de”. Low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) was also conducted, which showed activities in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), anterior cingulate and postcentral cortex. Two representations of SRPP, self-referential content (SRC) and first-person perspective (FPP), are discussed.

► We inspected the effect of self-relevant possessive pronoun (SRPP).
► P300 amplitude was augmented for “wo de” relative to “ta de”, “wo” and “ta”.
► MPFC and postcentral cortex were activated.
► The effect might be caused by different representations of “wo de” and “ta de”.