Self identity in sociocultural contexts: Implications from studies of self-face recognition

One’s own face is an index of personal identity, and recognition of one’s own face reflects how an individual processes self identity in a perceptual task. Recent studies have uncovered cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying self-face recognition, which are characterized by faster behavioral responses to self-face than to familiar faces and enhanced activity in a fronto-parietal neural circuit. In addition, the processes of self-face are modulated by sociocultural contexts. The neurocognitive processes of self-face recognition are significantly different between participants from East Asian and Western cultures. In addition, the neurocognitive processes of self-face recognition are modulated by priming procedures that temporally activate specific cultural values or schemas. The findings of neurocognitive processes involved in self-face recognition provide empirical evidence that sociocultural contexts strongly modulate human self identity. KeywordsBrain imaging-Culture-Self identity-Self-face recognition