Neural systems for guilt from actions affecting self versus others.
Abstract
Guilt is a core emotion governing social behavior by promoting compliance with social
norms or self-imposed standards. The goal of this study was to contrast guilty responses
to actions that affect self versus others, since actions with social consequences
are hypothesized to yield greater guilty feelings due to adopting the perspective
and subjective emotional experience of others. Sixteen participants were presented
with brief hypothetical scenarios in which the participant's actions resulted in harmful
consequences to self (guilt-self) or to others (guilt-other) during functional MRI.
Participants felt more intense guilt for guilt-other than guilt-self and guilt-neutral
scenarios. Guilt scenarios revealed distinct regions of activity correlated with intensity
of guilt, social consequences of actions, and the interaction of guilt by social consequence.
Guilt intensity was associated with activation of the dorsomedial PFC, superior frontal
gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and anterior inferior frontal gyrus. Guilt accompanied
by social consequences was associated with greater activation than without social
consequences in the ventromedial and dorsomedial PFC, precuneus, posterior cingulate,
and posterior superior temporal sulcus. Finally, the interaction analysis highlighted
select regions that were more strongly correlated with guilt intensity as a function
of social consequence, including the left anterior inferior frontal gyrus, left ventromedial
PFC, and left anterior inferior parietal cortex. Our results suggest these regions
intensify guilt where harm to others may incur a greater social cost.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10974Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.12.069Publication Info
Morey, Rajendra A; McCarthy, Gregory; Selgrade, Elizabeth S; Seth, Srishti; Nasser,
Jessica D; & LaBar, Kevin S (2012). Neural systems for guilt from actions affecting self versus others. Neuroimage, 60(1). pp. 683-692. 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.12.069. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10974.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Kevin S. LaBar
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
My research focuses on understanding how emotional events modulate cognitive processes
in the human brain. We aim to identify brain regions that encode the emotional properties
of sensory stimuli, and to show how these regions interact with neural systems supporting
social cognition, executive control, and learning and memory. To achieve this goal,
we use a variety of cognitive neuroscience techniques in human subject populations.
These include psychophysiological monitoring, functional magnetic
Rajendra A. Morey
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research in my lab is focused on brain changes associated with posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
We apply several advanced methods for understanding brain function including functional
MRI, structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and genetic effects.
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