抄録
The purpose of this study was to identify the neural correlates of psychosocial maturity during understanding others from the viewpoint of self. In psychology, ego identity is one of the most famous theories for psychosocial maturity. Those who have established ego identity have a definite purpose for one's life and an ability of goal directed behavior. We assumed that such a psychosocial maturity is related to the ability to distinguish others from self when one understands the others. We used an fMRI technique to identify cortical regions where activity during understanding others' decision-making is correlated with personality maturity. We measured subjects' personality maturity using the Rasmussen's Ego Identity Scale. There were three conditions, S, F and G which were perspective taking conditions for inferring self, best friend and people in general's decision-making, respectively. Differential activation of both the contrasts F-S and G-S was significantly correlated with the ego identity scale in the left lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC). The results indicate that the activity of the left LPFC is related to psychosocial maturity when understanding others from the viewpoint of self. We suggest that psychosocial maturity is related to the development of the executive function which is supported by the left LPFC. [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S30]
