Abstract: Self-concept refers to a complex but organized dynamic mental structure, which is composed by all convictions of one individual’s intrinsic characteristics. Others, especially close others play a vital role in the composition of self-concept. Parents offer a vast and varied experience to the individual growth, and parents have more influence than others on the personality development of adolescent. The intimate relationships between individual and their parents can shape and create one’s self-concept by evolving their shared elements. Therefore, individuals’ representations of the information about their parents play an important role on the conformation of their self-concept. How does an individual represent information related to his or her parents? There are two main viewpoints about self-with-other representation: shared representation and special representation. Shared representation means that the brain activation of self-representation and other-representation has a certain overlap. Individuals integrate the information of others into their self-concept. In this process, the representation of others became an integral part of the self. Special representation means that the individual is independent from others. Representation of others and representation of self are comparatively independent. The representation structure and the activated brain regions of these two representation process are separated. The style of self-with-other representation depends to a large extent on the relationship types and closeness between self and others. Parents are the most important close others of an individual, so the representation of their information may share most overlap parts with self-representation. Previous studies have discussed the unique neural representation of parents from two aspects. One used others’ (strangers’, celebrities’ and friends’) faces as a reference, to discuss the specific neural mechanism of parents’ face recognition. The processing of face involved the neural representation in the perceptual field. The other used a trait judgment task to examine the neural mechanism of the judgment and memory about parents’ traits. The judgment and recollection of parents’ traits related to the neural representation in the mental domains. No matter what kind of information, the self-with-parent representation is more inclined to the shared representation. Individual differences exist in the neural representations of parents. It could be elaborated from the perspective of numerous neuroscience researches on differences in genders and cultures. Markus and Kitayama (1991) proposed the theory of self-construal to explain these two differences. The interdependent self focuses on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. It emphasizes attending to and fitting in with others, and harmonious interdependence with them. Also the independent self seeks to maintain their independence from others by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. The interdependence self represents parents’ information more inclined to the shared representation than the independent self does. However some problems still remain unsolved. Future research should emphasize on the primary brain area as well as their functions. It should also aim to find a unified theory for the neural representation of parents’ information. At the end, other factors should also be considered when conducting research, such as the family structure and the attachment types.

Key words: parents, close others, self-concept, self-referential, shared representation, special representation, cognitive neuroscience

摘要： 在自我概念的构成中，他人尤其是亲密他人起着至关重要的作用。个体对父母相关信息的表征影响着个体自我概念的形成。对父母面孔的加工，涉及信息在个体知觉领域的表征；对父母人格特质的加工，涉及信息在个体心智领域的表征。个体对父母信息的神经表征存在性别和文化背景的差异。未来研究应整合表征父母信息的主要脑区及其作用，在研究思路上应考察家庭结构和依恋类型等因素。

关键词: 父母 亲密他人 自我概念 共享表征 特异表征 自我参照 认知神经科学