The neural correlates of self-conscious emotions - an fMRI study
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1
University of Geneva, Switzerland
Within the relatively new research field of “affective neuroscience” much progress has been achieved in understanding the neural bases of fundamental emotions like fear and disgust, but little research has been devoted so far to the more complex “self-conscious” emotions like guilt, shame, and pride. These emotions typically occur in interpersonal contexts and can constitute important psychological factors guiding social behaviour. Here, we use an autobiographical memory paradigm to investigate the specific neural networks associated with guilt, shame and pride by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in relation to basic negative and positive emotions. In a pre-scanning questionnaire, subjects defined situations from their personal life that were associated with strong personal feelings of guilt, shame, pride (self-conscious emotions), sadness (negative basic emotion), happiness (positive basic emotion), as well as neutral situations. For each situation, subjects provided general context information (place, time, other persons present) and four specific keywords. These were later used as reminder cues in the scanner, where subjects were asked to relive the personal situations and the associated feelings in their mind as vividly as possible (block design: 4 blocks of 20s mental imagery for each emotion condition). This is the first study that directly compares the neural correlates of the self-conscious emotions guilt, shame and pride. Preliminary results point to distinct patterns of brain activation associated with these emotions specifically in prefrontal and temporal areas.
Conference:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Consciousness
Citation:
Wagner
U,
N’Diaye
K,
Ethofer
T and
Vuilleumier
P
(2008). The neural correlates of self-conscious emotions - an fMRI study.
Conference Abstract:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.188
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Received:
08 Dec 2008;
Published Online:
08 Dec 2008.
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Correspondence:
Ullrich Wagner, University of Geneva, Lausanne 1015 Vaud, Switzerland, ullrich.wagner@medecine.unige.ch