Piretti, L.; Pappaianni, E.; Garbin, C.; Rumiati, R.I.; Job, R.; Grecucci, A. The Neural Signatures of Shame, Embarrassment, and Guilt: A Voxel-Based Meta-Analysis on Functional Neuroimaging Studies. Brain Sci.2023, 13, 559.
Piretti, L.; Pappaianni, E.; Garbin, C.; Rumiati, R.I.; Job, R.; Grecucci, A. The Neural Signatures of Shame, Embarrassment, and Guilt: A Voxel-Based Meta-Analysis on Functional Neuroimaging Studies. Brain Sci. 2023, 13, 559.
Piretti, L.; Pappaianni, E.; Garbin, C.; Rumiati, R.I.; Job, R.; Grecucci, A. The Neural Signatures of Shame, Embarrassment, and Guilt: A Voxel-Based Meta-Analysis on Functional Neuroimaging Studies. Brain Sci.2023, 13, 559.
Piretti, L.; Pappaianni, E.; Garbin, C.; Rumiati, R.I.; Job, R.; Grecucci, A. The Neural Signatures of Shame, Embarrassment, and Guilt: A Voxel-Based Meta-Analysis on Functional Neuroimaging Studies. Brain Sci. 2023, 13, 559.
Abstract
Self-conscious emotions, such as shame and guilt, play a fundamental role in regulating moral behavior and in promoting the welfare of the society. Despite their relevance, the neural bases of these emotions are uncertain. In the present meta-analysis, we performed a systematic literature review in order to single out functional neuroimaging studies on healthy individuals specifically investigating the neural substrates of shame, embarrassment and guilt. Seventeen studies investigating the neural correlates of shame/embarrassment, and seventeen studies investigating guilt brain representation met our inclusion criteria. The analyses revealed that both guilt and shame/embarrassment were associated with the activation of the left anterior insula, involved in emotional awareness processing, and arousal. Guilt specific areas were located within the left temporo-parietal junction, which is thought to be involved in social cognitive processes. Moreover, specific activations for shame/embarrassment involved areas related to social pain (dorsal anterior cingulate, insula, thalamus), behavioral inhibition (premotor cortex) networks. This pattern of results might reflect distinct action tendencies associated with the two emotions.
Keywords
self-conscious emotions; shame; embarrassment; guilt; moral emotions; anterior insula
Subject
Social Sciences, Behavior Sciences
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received:
15 March 2023
Commenter:
Deependra kamble
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment:
nice article.
It seems that the areas studied have long been considered important for awareness in a manner called forward loop with processing a bi directional loop. That would explain why carnivores don't have guilt when they hunt for food, but does that mean that they aren't self aware?...more study needed..anyways nice article..
Commenter: Deependra kamble
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
It seems that the areas studied have long been considered important for awareness in a manner called forward loop with processing a bi directional loop. That would explain why carnivores don't have guilt when they hunt for food, but does that mean that they aren't self aware?...more study needed..anyways nice article..