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Effects of Self-Other Perspectives on Neural Mechanisms Underlying Survival-Related Memory Enhancement

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Yasuko Shiomi¹ (), Akiho Kamo¹, Moe Mihara¹, Takashi Tsukiura¹; ¹Kyoto University

Survival-related memory enhancement (SME) is the superior memory encoded while imagining survival scenarios relative to non-survival scenarios. Although prior work implicates the importance of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC)–hippocampal interactions in SME, it remains unclear how the SME mechanisms are modulated by self and other perspectives. To tackle this issue, we used fMRI to examine multivariate activity (MVPA) and functional connectivity patterns while healthy young adults rated how useful objects would be in hypothetical survival (earthquake) versus non-survival (moving) situations from either a self- or other-related perspective, followed by recognition memory. Regions of interest included the amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), vlPFC, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and hippocampus. Behaviorally, SME—higher recognition accuracy for survival- than non-survival-encoded items—was significant in both perspectives. MVPA reliably classified survival versus non-survival encoding in the amygdala, vlPFC, and dmPFC in both perspectives; in the other-related perspective, activity patterns in the insula and ACC also classified survival versus non-survival encoding. Functional connectivity analyses revealed the SME-related connectivity between the hippocampus and vlPFC across perspectives. Furthermore, perspective-specific connectivity emerged: hippocampus–dmPFC connectivity in the self-related perspective, and hippocampus–insula/ACC connectivity in the other-related perspective. These results indicate that SME relies on a vlPFC–hippocampal core, with perspective-sensitive engagement of social-regulatory system (dmPFC) when imagining the self-related survival situation and interoceptive emotion–salience system (insula/ACC) when evaluating the other-related survival situation. Who we imagine at risk would systematically shape the neural architecture of SME and clarify how social perspective tunes goal-directed encoding under survival situations.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic