It should be noted that although the frame of reference in all three studies was related to the self, as the person in the scanner was interacting with another from the self perspective, there are perhaps interesting differences in the type of social PE signal in sgACC. In the studies by Will et al., (2017) and Diaconescu et al., (2017) the PEs were ‘relational’, they involved learning about others with clear consequences for the self, which impacted learning about self and other. In contrast in the Lockwood et al (2016) study the PEs occurred when learning about the outcomes for another person where the experimental outcomes for self were unaffected. It will be important for future studies to examine the commonality and distinction between different types of social PE in sgACC.
