Background: Understanding how humans perceive and represent themselves is central to cognitive neuroscience. Although self-face processing is well characterized, how distinct dimensions of the self, such as facial and creator identities, are neurally integrated remains largely unknown. Heartbeat-related self-expression and its underlying neural interactions remain unexplored. Methods: We simultaneously recorded EEG and ECG signals from 32 art students while they viewed self- and other-created portraits (of self and other). Results: The results revealed distinct processing pathways for facial identity and creator identity, while both self-related stimuli elicited special neural responses. Furthermore, their interaction emerged in early visual evoked potentials (188–344 ms) and late heartbeat-evoked potentials (344–596 ms). Conclusions: These findings indicate that the self is modulated by visual and interoceptive signals, offering new insights into the neural mechanisms of selfhood in artistic practice.
Chen et al. (Tue,) studied this question.