Activation of anterior paralimbic structures during guilt-related script-driven imagery

Guilt, Disgust, and Not Just Right Experience Mediate the Effect of Demanding Parent Mode on Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-like Tendencies, and Punitive Parent Mode Moderates This Mediation

The main objective of the present study was to examine, in a non-clinical population, the validity of a moderated mediation model for obsessive mental functioning. The research was conducted on a sample of 205 participants. Data were collected using the Psychiatric Screening and Diagnostic Questionnaire, Young's Modes Questionnaire-form SMI-2, Padua Inventory of Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms, Fear of Guilt Scale in OCD, Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-Revised, and Not Just Right Experiences Questionnaire-Revised. The results revealed that there is a significant positive, indirect effect of the Demanding Parent mode on OCD-like tendencies, which is completely mediated by fear of guilt, tendency and sensitivity to disgust, and Not Just Right Experiences severity. The Punitive Parent mode moderates only the indirect effect of the Demanding Parent mode mediated by fear of guilt, not the indirect effect mediated by disgust tendency and sensitivity and Not Just Right Experiences severity. Also, the indirect effect of the Demanding Parent mode on obsessive tendencies mediated by fear of guilt is significant only at medium and high values of the Punitive Parent mode, not at low values of the moderator. Our results provide a novel direction targeting the direct therapeutic intervention on demanding and punitive internal dialogue, complementing the classical CBT intervention protocol.

Frontal lobe-related cognition in the context of self-disgust

Self- disgust is an adverse self-conscious emotion that plays an important role in psychopathology and well-being. However, self-disgust has received little attention in the emotion literature, therefore our understanding of the processes underlying the experience of self-disgust is relatively scarce, although neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies support the idea that this emotion may heavily rely on frontal lobe-related cognition. To test this hypothesis, in two studies we investigated the relationship between state and trait levels of self-disgust, cognition and emotion regulation in healthy adults. Specifically, in Study 1 we tested the hypothesis that emotion regulation strategies (avoidance, suppression, and cognitive reappraisal) mediate the relationship between inhibition ability and state and trait levels of self-disgust. In Study 2, we followed a more comprehensive approach to test the hypothesis that frontal lobe-related cognitive processes (updating, Theory of Mind-ToM-, and self-attention) are closely related to the experience of self-disgust in healthy adults. Overall, across these studies, we found evidence to support the idea that inhibition ability and ToM may play a role in the experience of state and trait self-disgust, respectively. However, we did not find consistent evidence across the two studies to support the notion held in the literature that the experience of self- conscious emotions, in this case self-disgust, is heavily dependent on frontal lobe-related cognition.

Reputation risk during dishonest social decision-making modulates anterior insular and cingulate cortex activity and connectivity

To explore the neural underpinnings of (dis)honest decision making under quasi-ecological conditions, we used an fMRI adapted version of a card game in which deceptive or truthful decisions are made to an opponent, with or without the risk of getting caught by them. Dishonest decisions were associated to increased activity in a cortico-subcortical circuit including the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula (AI), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and right caudate. Crucially, deceptive immoral decisions under reputation risk enhanced activity of - and functional connectivity between - the bilateral ACC and left AI, suggesting the need for heightened emotional processing and cognitive control when making immoral decisions under reputation risk. Tellingly, more manipulative individuals required less involvement of the ACC during risky self-gain lies but more involvement during other-gain truths, pointing to the need of cognitive control only when going against one's own moral code.

The functional connectivity between left insula and left medial superior frontal gyrus underlying the relationship between rumination and procrastination

Procrastination is regarded as a prevalent problematic behavior that impairs people's physical and mental health. Although previous studies have indicated that trait rumination is robustly positively correlated with procrastination, it remains unknown about the neural substrates underlying the relationship between trait rumination and procrastination. To address this issue, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) approaches to explore the neural basis of the relationship between trait rumination and procrastination. Our behavior results found that trait rumination was significantly positively correlated to procrastination, while the VBM analysis showed that trait rumination was negatively correlated with gray matter volume of the insula. Furthermore, the RSFC results revealed a negative association of the left insula-lmSFG (left medial superior frontal gyrus) functional connectivity with trait rumination. More importantly, the mediation analysis showed that trait rumination could completely mediate the relationship between left insula-lmSFG functional connectivity and procrastination. These results suggest that the left insula-lmSFG functional connectivity involved in emotion regulation modulates the association between trait rumination and procrastination, which provides neural evidence for the relationship between trait rumination and procrastination.

Temporopolar regions of the human brain

Following prolonged neglect during the formative decades of behavioural neurology, the temporopolar region has become a site of vibrant research on the neurobiology of cognition and conduct. This turnaround can be attributed to increasing recognition of neurodegenerative diseases that target temporopolar regions for peak destruction. The resultant syndromes include behavioural dementia, associative agnosia, semantic forms of primary progressive aphasia and semantic dementia. Clinicopathological correlations show that object naming and word comprehension are critically dependent on the language-dominant (usually left) temporopolar region, whereas behavioural control and non-verbal object recognition display a more bilateral representation with a rightward bias. Neuroanatomical experiments in macaques and neuroimaging in humans show that the temporoparietal region sits at the confluence of auditory, visual and limbic streams of processing at the downstream (deep) pole of the 'what' pathway. The functional neuroanatomy of this region revolves around three axes, an anterograde horizontal axis from unimodal to heteromodal and paralimbic cortex; a radial axis where visual (ventral), auditory (dorsal) and paralimbic (medial) territories encircle temporopolar cortex and display hemispheric asymmetry; and a vertical depth-of-processing axis for the associative elaboration of words, objects and interoceptive states. One function of this neural matrix is to support the transformation of object and word representations from unimodal percepts to multimodal concepts. The underlying process is likely to start at canonical gateways that successively lead to generic (superordinate), specific (basic) and unique levels of recognition. A first sign of left temporopolar dysfunction takes the form of taxonomic blurring where boundaries among categories are preserved but not boundaries among exemplars of a category. Semantic paraphasias and coordinate errors in word-picture verification tests are consequences of this phenomenon. Eventually, boundaries among categories are also blurred and comprehension impairments become more profound. The medial temporopolar region belongs to the amygdalocentric component of the limbic system and stands to integrate exteroceptive information with interoceptive states underlying social interactions. Review of the pertinent literature shows that word comprehension and conduct impairments caused by temporopolar strokes and temporal lobectomy are far less severe than those seen in temporopolar atrophies. One explanation for this unexpected discrepancy invokes the miswiring of residual temporopolar neurons during the many years of indolently progressive neurodegeneration. According to this hypothesis, the temporopolar regions become not only dysfunctional but also sources of aberrant outputs that interfere with the function of areas elsewhere in the language and paralimbic networks, a juxtaposition not seen in lobectomy or stroke.

Mortality salience enhances neural activities related to guilt and shame when recalling the past

Mortality salience (MS) influences cognition and behavior. However, its effect on emotion (especially moral emotions) and the underlying neural correlates are unclear. We investigated how MS priming modulated guilt and shame in a later recall task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The behavioral results indicated that MS increased self-reported guilt but not shame. The neural results showed that MS strengthened neural activities related to the psychological processes of guilt and shame. Specifically, for both guilt and shame, MS increased activation in a region associated with self-referential processing (ventral medial prefrontal cortex). For guilt but not shame, MS increased the activation of regions associated with cognitive control (orbitofrontal cortex) and emotion processing (amygdala). For shame but not guilt, MS decreased brain functional connectivity related to self-referential processing. A direct comparison showed that MS more strongly decreased a functional connectivity related to self-referential processing in the shame than in the guilt condition. Additionally, the activation of insula during MS priming was partly predictive of neural activities related to guilt and shame in the subsequent recall task. Our study sheds light on the psychological and neural mechanisms of MS effects on moral emotions and provides theoretical insights for enriching terror management theory.

Effects of Kisspeptin Administration in Women With Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial

IMPORTANCE

Despite being the most common female sexual health complaint worldwide, current treatment options for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) are limited in their safety and effectiveness. The hormone kisspeptin is a key endogenous activator of the reproductive hormonal axis with additional emerging roles in sexual and emotional behavior; however, its effects in women with HSDD are unknown.

OBJECTIVE

To test the hypothesis that kisspeptin enhances sexual and attraction brain processing in women with HSDD.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This randomized clinical trial was double-masked and placebo controlled with a 2-way crossover. The trial was conducted in a university research setting in the UK from October 2020 to April 2021. Eligible participants were premenopausal women with HSDD. Functional neuroimaging, psychometric, and hormonal analyses were employed to investigate the effects of kisspeptin administration on brain processing, in response to erotic stimuli (erotic videos) and facial attraction (face images of varying attractiveness). Data were analyzed from May to December 2021.

INTERVENTIONS

A 75-minute intravenous infusion of kisspeptin-54 (1 nmol/kg/h) vs equivalent-rate placebo infusion.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Blood oxygen level-dependent responses across the whole brain and regions of interest during kisspeptin vs placebo administration in response to erotic and facial attraction stimuli.

RESULTS

Of the 40 participants who were randomized, 32 women completed both kisspeptin and placebo visits, with a mean (SE) age of 29.2 (1.2) years. Kisspeptin administration resulted in modulations in sexual and facial attraction brain processing (deactivation of the left inferior frontal gyrus: Z max, 3.76; P = .01; activation of the right postcentral and supramarginal gyrus: Z max, 3.73; P < .001; deactivation of the right temporoparietal junction: Z max 4.08; P = .02). Furthermore, positive correlations were observed between kisspeptin-enhanced hippocampal activity in response to erotic videos, and baseline distress relating to sexual function (r = 0.469; P = .007). Kisspeptin's enhancement of posterior cingulate cortex activity in response to attractive male faces also correlated with reduced sexual aversion, providing additional functional significance (r = 0.476, P = .005). Kisspeptin was well-tolerated with no reported adverse effects.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

These findings lay the foundations for clinical applications for kisspeptin in women with HSDD.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ISRCTN trial registry identifier: ISRCTN17271094.

At the Intersection of Anger, Chronic Pain, and the Brain: A Mini-Review

Chronic pain remains one of the most persistent healthcare challenges in the world. To advance pain treatment, experts have recently introduced research-driven subtypes of chronic pain based on proposed underlying mechanisms. Nociplastic pain (e.g., nonspecific chronic low back or fibromyalgia) is one such subtype which may involve a greater etiologic role for brain plasticity, painful emotions induced by life stress and trauma, and unhealthy emotion regulation. In particular, correlational and behavioral data link anger and the ways anger is regulated with the presence and severity of nociplastic pain. Functional neuroimaging studies also suggest nociplastic pain and healthy anger regulation demonstrate inverse patterns of activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala; thus, improving anger regulation could normalize activity in these regions. In this Mini-Review, we summarize these findings and propose a unified, biobehavioral model called the Anger, Brain, and Nociplastic Pain (AB-NP) Model, which can be tested in future research and may advance pain care by informing new treatments that address anger, anger regulation, and brain plasticity for nociplastic pain.

The neuroscience of social feelings: mechanisms of adaptive social functioning

Social feelings have conceptual and empirical connections with affect and emotion. In this review, we discuss how they relate to cognition, emotion, behavior and well-being. We examine the functional neuroanatomy and neurobiology of social feelings and their role in adaptive social functioning. Existing neuroscience literature is reviewed to identify concepts, methods and challenges that might be addressed by social feelings research. Specific topic areas highlight the influence and modulation of social feelings on interpersonal affiliation, parent-child attachments, moral sentiments, interpersonal stressors, and emotional communication. Brain regions involved in social feelings were confirmed by meta-analysis using the Neurosynth platform for large-scale, automated synthesis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Words that relate specifically to social feelings were identfied as potential research variables. Topical inquiries into social media behaviors, loneliness, trauma, and social sensitivity, especially with recent physical distancing for guarding public and personal health, underscored the increasing importance of social feelings for affective and second person neuroscience research with implications for brain development, physical and mental health, and lifelong adaptive functioning.

Functional connectivity density abnormalities and anxiety in primary insomnia patients

Primary insomnia (PI) is strongly associated with emotional dysregulation. However, the neurobiological pathology of the association between PI and emotional dysregulation is limited. Previous studies have indicated an impact of PI on the emotional regulatory system, but the specificity of this finding remains to be confirmed. A sample of 27 primary insomnia patients (PIs) and 32 matched healthy controls (HCs) was recruited for this study. The functional connectivity density (FCD) was used to assess the spontaneous functional brain organization in PIs. Then, we identified whether the local (lFCD) and global FCD (gFCD) abnormalities can be the potential biomarker for emotion level in PIs. Our findings suggested that PIs exhibited higher levels of anxiety and depression, and the levels of anxiety and depression is associated with the insomnia severity. We also found that PIs showed both lower lFCD and gFCD in several regions (i.e. thalamus, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula). Furthermore, the lower gFCD values of left ACC and right insula were associated with their anxiety level in PIs, which demonstrated their potential biomarker for anxiety in PIs. Our results demonstrated that the relationship between the insomnia severity and the anxiety level could be partially mediated by gFCD of the ACC and insula. The current study improved our understanding of the anxiety in PIs and provided helpful information for future therapeutic development for PIs.

Changes in the neural correlates of self-blame following mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in remitted depressed participants

Mindfulness-Based-Cognitive-Therapy (MBCT) reduces vulnerability for relapse into depression by helping individuals to counter tendencies to engage in maladaptive repetitive patterns of thinking and respond more compassionately to negative self-judgment. However, little is known about the neural correlates underlying these effects. To elucidate these correlates, we investigated fMRI brain activation during a task eliciting feelings of blaming oneself or others. Sixteen participants in remission from major depressive disorder (MDD) completed fMRI assessments before and after MBCT, alongside self-reported levels of self-compassion, mindfulness, and depression symptoms. Analyses of self-blame versus other-blame contrasts showed a reduction in activation in the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate/medial superior frontal gyrus after MBCT compared to baseline. Further, exploratory analyses showed that increases in self-kindness after MBCT correlated with reduced activation in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus in self-blame versus rest contrasts. These findings suggest that MBCT is associated with a reduction in activations in cortical midline regions to self-blame which may be mediated by increasing self-kindness. However, this is a small, uncontrolled study with 16 participants and therefore our results will need confirmation in a controlled study.

Pain and social decision-making: New insights from the social framing effect

This paper focuses on the social function of painful experience as revealed by recent studies on social decision-making. Observing others suffering from physical pain evokes empathic reactions that can lead to prosocial behavior (e.g., helping others at a cost to oneself), which might be regarded as the social value of pain derived from evolution. Feelings of guilt may also be elicited when one takes responsibility for another’s pain. These social emotions play a significant role in various cognitive processes and may affect behavioral preferences. In addition, the influence of others’ pain on decision-making is highly sensitive to social context. Combining neuroimaging techniques with a novel decision paradigm, we found that when asking participants to trade-off personal benefits against providing help to other people, verbally describing the causal relationship between their decision and other people’s pain (i.e., framing) significantly changed participants’ preferences. This social framing effect was associated with neural activation in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), which is a brain area that is important in social cognition and in social emotions. Further, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on this region successfully modulated the magnitude of the social framing effect. These findings add to the knowledge about the role of perception of others’ pain in our social life.

Stability or Plasticity? - A Hierarchical Allostatic Regulation Model of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Function for Social Valuation

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has long been recognized as the key component of the neurocircuitry involved in various social as well as non-social behaviors, however, little is known regarding the organizing principle of distinctive subregions in the mPFC that integrates a wide range of mPFC functions. The present study proposes a hierarchical model of mPFC functionality, where three functionally dissociable subregions, namely, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), rostromedial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC), and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), are differentially involved in computing values of decision-making. According to this model, the mPFC subregions interact with each other in such a way that more dorsal regions utilize additional external sensory information from environment to predict and prevent conflicts occurring in more ventral regions tuned to internal bodily signals, thereby exerting the hierarchically organized allostatic regulatory control over homeostatic reflexes. This model also emphasizes the role of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) in arbitrating the transitions between different thalamo-cortical loops, detecting conflicts between competing options for decision-making, and in shifting flexibly between decision modes. The hierarchical architecture of the mPFC working in conjunction with the TRN may play a key role in adjusting the internal (bodily) needs to suit the constraints of external (environmental) variables better, thus effectively addressing the stability-plasticity dilemma.

Two Reasoning Strategies in Patients With Psychological Illnesses

Hyper-emotion theory states that psychological disorders are conditions in which individuals experience emotions that are appropriate to the situation but inappropriate in their intensity. When these individuals experience such an emotion, they are inevitably compelled to reason about its cause. They therefore develop characteristic strategies of reasoning depending on the particular hyper-emotion they experience. In anxiety disorders (e.g., panic attack, social phobia), the perception of a disorder-related threat leads to hyper-anxiety; here, individuals' reasoning is corroboratory, adducing evidence that confirms the risk (corroboratory strategy). In obsessive-compulsive disorders, the threat of having acted in an irresponsible way leads to both hyper-anxiety and guilt; here, individuals' reasoning is refutatory, adducing only evidence disconfirming the risk of being guilty (refutatory strategy). We report three empirical studies corroborating these hypotheses. They demonstrate that patients themselves recognize the two strategies and spontaneously use them in therapeutic sessions and in evaluating scenarios in an experiment.

Investigation of an emotion perception test using functional magnetic resonance imaging

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Patients with mood disorders are known to have an emotion recognition deficit in facial emotion processing. Emotion perception involves two systems of cognitive and affective processes associated with brain activation in the fusiform gyrus and prefrontal cortices. To overcome the limitations of existing emotion perception tests, we designed an emotion perception index to assess the individuals' mood status.

METHODS

We selected 66 emotional faces (22 pleasant, 22 unpleasant, and 22 neutral) for the emotion perception test and recruited 40 healthy participants to verify the test. The participants completed a demographic data questionnaire and were administered the Beck Depressive Inventory (BDI). They were also scanned to assess the brain functional connectivity (FC) between seeds of the fusiform gyrus and other brain regions using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). After rs-fMRI scanning, the participants were administered the emotion perception test on a computer.

RESULTS

In response to 108 questions regarding emotional face differentiation, the study group showed an average correct-answer rate of 90.7 ± 6.4% and a mean reaction time of 1.4 ± 0.4 s. We created an emotion perception index from the calculation of correct rate, number of correct responses, and reaction time in response to 108 questions; the mean of the emotion perception index in the study group was 3.8 ± 0.2. The emotion perception index was positively correlated with the BDI scores (r = 0.4, p = 0.01); further, it was positively correlated with the FC from the fusiform gyrus to the left superior frontal gyrus (FDRq < 0.01), left medial frontal gyrus (FDRq < 0.01), left frontal precentral gyrus (FDRq = 0.02), left insula (FDRq < 0.01), and left occipital cuneus (FDRq = 0.01). The FC from the fusiform gyrus to the left insula was positively correlated with the BDI scores (r = 0.59, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The emotion perception index designed in this study may correctly indicate the mood status of individuals. In addition, the emotion perception test was associated with brain FC from the fusiform gyrus to the frontal and insular cortices.

Neurofunctional characterization of early prefrontal processes contributing to interpersonal guilt

Guilt is a social emotion that plays a central role in promoting prosocial behavior. Despite its relevance, it remains poorly understood. The present study aimed to fill this gap by verifying and characterizing a frontal negative fluctuation of the event-related brain potentials (ERP) emerging in conditions of interpersonal guilt. Paired participants would earn money if both performed correctly a dot estimation task (both right); otherwise, both would lose a similar amount (self wrong, partner wrong, and both wrong conditions). The reported feeling of guilt was noticeable in the self wrong condition, which yielded a frontal negativity between 300 and 500 ms after the onset of performance feedback. The amplitude of this fluctuation, however, did not correlate with the amount of guilt reported by the participants, whereas both these values did so with standard measures of empathy. Neither anxiety (trait or state) nor arousal (skin conductance response) seemed to relate to this negativity. A neural source (LORETA) analysis established its generators in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a region linked to guilt in fMRI studies but also, importantly, to empathy. The frontal negative fluctuation thus might reflect empathic processes contributing to achieve feelings of interpersonal guilt.

The effects of shame on subsequent reactions to a trauma analog

The current study examined the effects of experimentally-induced shame on subsequent reactions to a trauma analog. Participants were 88 college-aged women randomly assigned to a shame prime condition or to a control (neutral) condition. Participants then were presented with an analog trauma audiotape depicting dating violence. Participants reported intrusive thoughts relating to the trauma analog in the two days following the procedure. Negative (shame, guilt) and positive (pride, positive affect) emotions were monitored throughout the procedure. Results indicated that the shame prime successfully increased shame in the Shame condition alone. After the trauma analog, increases in shame were noted in both conditions. In contrast, guilt reduced in the Shame condition, while this emotion increased in the Control condition, contrary to hypothesis. Shame and guilt were somewhat volatile for participants in the Shame condition in the two days following the lab procedure, while individuals in the Control condition reported steadily decreasing levels of these emotions. No between-condition differences were noted in the frequency of intrusions in the two days following the laboratory procedure, contrary to hypothesis. Results are discussed in light of our current understanding of shame and its role in PTSD, with suggestions to guide future research.

Investigating EEG Patterns for Dual-Stimuli Induced Human Fear Emotional State

Most electroencephalography (EEG) based emotion recognition systems make use of videos and images as stimuli. Few used sounds, and even fewer studies were found involving self-induced emotions. Furthermore, most of the studies rely on single stimuli to evoke emotions. The question of "whether different stimuli for same emotion elicitation generate any subject-independent correlations" remains unanswered. This paper introduces a dual modality based emotion elicitation paradigm to investigate if emotions can be classified induced with different stimuli. A method has been proposed based on common spatial pattern (CSP) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to analyze human brain signals for fear emotions evoked with two different stimuli. Self-induced emotional imagery is one of the considered stimuli, while audio/video clips are used as the other stimuli. The method extracts features from the CSP algorithm and LDA performs classification. To investigate associated EEG correlations, a spectral analysis was performed. To further improve the performance, CSP was compared with other regularized techniques. Critical EEG channels are identified based on spatial filter weights. To the best of our knowledge, our work provides the first contribution for the assessment of EEG correlations in the case of self versus video induced emotions captured with a commercial grade EEG device.

The role of mid-insula in the relationship between cardiac interoceptive attention and anxiety: evidence from an fMRI study

Interoception refers to the perception of the internal bodily states. Recent accounts highlight the role of the insula in both interoception and the subjective experience of anxiety. The current study aimed to delve deeper into the neural correlates of cardiac interoception; more specifically, the relationship between interoception-related insular activity, interoceptive accuracy, and anxiety. This was done using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in an experimental design in which 40 healthy volunteers focused on their heartbeat and anxious events. Interoceptive accuracy and anxiety levels were measured using the Heartbeat Perception Task and State Trait Anxiety Inventory, respectively. The results showed posterior, mid and anterior insular activity during cardiac interoception, whereas anxiety-related activation showed only anterior insular activity. Activation of the anterior insula when focused on cardiac interoception was positively correlated to state and trait anxiety levels, respectively. Moreover, the mid-insular activity during the cardiac attention condition not only related to individuals’ interoceptive accuracy but also to their levels of state and trait anxiety, respectively. These findings confirm that there are distinct neural representations of heartbeat attention and anxious experience across the insular regions, and suggest the mid-insula as a crucial link between cardiac interoception and anxiety.

Norms and the Flexibility of Moral Action

A complex web of social and moral norms governs many everyday human behaviors, acting as the glue for social harmony. The existence of moral norms helps elucidate the psychological motivations underlying a wide variety of seemingly puzzling behavior, including why humans help or trust total strangers. In this review, we examine four widespread moral norms: Fairness, altruism, trust, and cooperation, and consider how a single social instrument-reciprocity-underpins compliance to these norms. Using a game theoretic framework, we examine how both context and emotions moderate moral standards, and by extension, moral behavior. We additionally discuss how a mechanism of reciprocity facilitates the adherence to, and enforcement of, these moral norms through a core network of brain regions involved in processing reward. In contrast, violating this set of moral norms elicits neural activation in regions involved in resolving decision conflict and exerting cognitive control. Finally, we review how a reinforcement mechanism likely governs learning about morally normative behavior. Together, this review aims to explain how moral norms are deployed in ways that facilitate flexible moral choices.

Neural mapping of guilt: a quantitative meta-analysis of functional imaging studies

Guilt is a self-conscious emotion associated with the negative appraisal of one's behavior. In recent years, several neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural correlates of guilt, but no meta-analyses have yet identified the most robust activation patterns. A systematic review of literature found 16 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies with whole-brain analyses meeting the inclusion criteria, for a total of 325 participants and 135 foci of activation. A meta-analysis was then conducted using activation likelihood estimation. Additionally, Meta-Analytic Connectivity Modeling (MACM) analysis was conducted to investigate the functional connectivity of significant clusters. The analysis revealed 12 significant clusters of brain activation (voxel-based FDR-corrected p < 0.05) located in the prefrontal, temporal and parietal regions, mainly in the left hemisphere. Only the left dorsal cingulate cluster survived stringent FWE correction (voxel-based p < 0.05). Secondary analyses (voxel-based FDR-corrected p < 0.05) on the 7 studies contrasting guilt with another emotional condition showed an association with clusters in the left precuneus, the anterior cingulate, the left medial frontal gyrus, the right superior frontal gyrus and the left superior temporal gyrus. MACM demonstrated that regions associated with guilt are highly interconnected. Our analysis identified a distributed neural network of left-lateralized regions associated with guilt. While voxel-based FDR-corrected results should be considered exploratory, the dorsal cingulate was robustly associated with guilt. We speculate that this network integrates cognitive and emotional processes involved in the experience of guilt, including self-representation, theory of mind, conflict monitoring and moral values. Limitations of our meta-analyses comprise the small sample size and the heterogeneity of included studies, and concerns about naturalistic validity.

Modulation of negative emotions through anodal tDCS over the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Increasing evidence suggests that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) plays a critical role in emotion regulation, in particular concerning negative feelings. In the present research, we applied anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the rVLPFC with a twofold purpose. First, we aimed at exploring the feasibility of modulating the subjective experience of emotions through tDCS in healthy participants. Second, we wanted to assess which specific emotion can be regulated (and which cannot) with this brain stimulation approach. We designed a double-blind, between-subjects, sham-controlled study in which 96 participants watched short video clips eliciting different emotions during anodal or sham tDCS over the rVLPFC. Emotional reactions to each video clip were assessed with self-report scales measuring eight basic emotions. Results showed that, in contrast to the sham condition, tDCS over the rVLPFC reduced the perceived extent of specific negative emotions, namely, fear, anxiety, and sadness, compared to other negative or positive feelings. Overall, these results support the role of rVLPFC in regulating negative emotions, mostly associated with the prevention of dangerous situations (i.e., fear, anxiety, and sadness).

Functional Dissociation of the Posterior and Anterior Insula in Moral Disgust

The insula is thought to be involved in disgust. However, the roles of the posterior insula (PI) and anterior insula (AI) in moral disgust have not been clearly dissociated in previous studies. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, the participants evaluated the degree of disgust using sentences related to mild moral violations with different types of behavioral agents (mother and stranger). The activation of the PI in response to the stranger agent was significantly higher than that in response to the mother agent. In contrast, the activation of the AI in response to the mother agent was significantly higher than that in response to the stranger agent. These data suggest a clear functional dissociation between the PI and AI in which the PI is more involved in the primary level of moral disgust than is the AI, and the AI is more involved in the secondary level of moral disgust than is the PI. Our results provide key evidence for understanding the principle of embodied cognition and particularly demonstrate that high-level moral disgust is built on more basic disgust via a mental construction approach through a process of embodied schemata.

Personality disorders as disorganisation of attachment and affect regulation

If personality disorder is no longer to be a diagnosis of exclusion it needs a conceptual framework that fits both the symptoms of the illness and the behavioural problems that constitute its current diagnostic criteria. In this article, we suggest that personality disorder is best understood as disorganisation of the capacity for affect regulation, mediated by early attachments. We present evidence for this argument based on both developmental and neurobiological research.

Transforming Pain With Prosocial Meaning: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

OBJECTIVE

Contextual factors can transform how we experience pain, particularly if pain is associated with other positive outcomes. Here, we test a novel meaning-based intervention. Participants were given the opportunity to choose to receive pain on behalf of their romantic partners, situating pain experience in a positive, prosocial meaning context. We predicted that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a key structure for pain regulation and generation of affective meaning, would mediate the transformation of pain experience by this prosocial interpersonal context.

METHODS

We studied fMRI activity and behavioral responses in 29 heterosexual female participants during (1) a baseline pain challenge and (2) a task in which participants decided to accept a self-selected number of additional pain trials to reduce pain in their male romantic partners ("accept-partner-pain" condition).

RESULTS

Enduring extra pain for the benefit of the romantic partner reduced pain-related unpleasantness (t = -2.54, p = .016) but not intensity, and increased positive thoughts (t = 3.60, p = .001) and pleasant feelings (t = 5.39, p < .0005). Greater willingness to accept the pain of one's partner predicted greater unpleasantness reductions (t = 3.94, p = .001) and increases in positive thoughts (r = .457, p = .013). The vmPFC showed significant increases (q < .05 FDR-corrected) in activation during accept-partner-pain, especially for women with greater willingness to relieve their partner's pain (t = 2.63, p = .014). Reductions in brain regions processing pain and aversive emotion significantly mediated reductions in pain unpleasantness (q < .05 FDR-corrected).

CONCLUSIONS

The vmPFC has a key role in transforming the meaning of pain, which is associated with a cascade of positive psychological and brain effects, including changes in affective meaning, value, and pain-specific neural circuits.

In the mind's eye: The late positive potential to negative and neutral mental imagery and intolerance of uncertainty

There are many advantages to human beings' ability to generate and sustain mental imagery in the absence of exteroceptive stimuli; however, this ability may also underlie emotional disorders characterized by worry, rumination, or excessive concern about the future. For instance, fear-based disorders may be characterized by heightened ERPs to negative imagery. On the other hand, distress disorders may be characterized by attempts to avoid engaging with negative mental imagery, and therefore reduced electrocortical response. Prior ERP work has used negative and neutral pictorial stimuli to establish the parameters of response in healthy individuals, before taking these paradigms to clinical samples to assess aberrant emotion processing. Yet despite its clinical relevance, no study to date has elicited a late positive potential (LPP), a robust measure of emotion processing, to standardized negative imagined scenes. Here, participants listened to audio descriptions of negative and neutral scenes, and were asked to imagine these scenes as vividly as possible. Results showed that negative imagined scenes elicited an increased LPP, lasting approximately 10 s after audio description offset, as well as heightened ratings of arousal and unpleasantness. Moreover, participants with greater self-reported cognitive concerns about uncertain future events (higher prospective intolerance of uncertainty) showed reduced emotional modulation of the LPP. These data provide the first evidence of sustained electrocortical processing of standardized negative imagery elicited in the absence of salient visual cues, and suggest that cognitive risk for anxiety in an unselected sample may be represented phenotypically by blunted LPPs to negative imagery.

Neural response during anticipation of monetary loss is elevated in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

OBJECTIVES

Risky behaviour seriously impacts the life of adult patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Such behaviours have often been attributed to their exaggerated reward seeking, but dysfunctional anticipation of negative outcomes might also play a role.

METHODS

The present study compared adult patients with ADHD (n = 28) with matched healthy controls (n = 28) during anticipation of monetary losses versus gains while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and skin conductance recording.

RESULTS

Skin conductance was higher during anticipation of losses compared to gains in both groups. Affective ratings of predictive cues did not differ between groups. ADHD patients showed increased activity in bilateral amygdalae, left anterior insula (region of interest analysis) and left temporal pole (whole brain analysis) compared to healthy controls during loss versus gain anticipation. In the ADHD group higher insula and temporal pole activations went along with more negative affective ratings.

CONCLUSIONS

Neural correlates of loss anticipation are not blunted but rather increased in ADHD, possibly due to a life history of repeated failures and the respective environmental sanctions. Behavioural adaptations to such losses, however, might differentiate them from controls: future research should study whether negative affect might drive more risk seeking than risk avoidance.

Obsessions and compulsions in the lab: A meta-analysis of procedures to induce symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Efficacious induction procedures of symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are necessary in order to test central tenets of theories on OCD. However, the efficacy of the current range of induction procedures remains unclear. Therefore, this meta-analysis set out to examine the efficacy of induction procedures in participants with and without OCD symptoms. Moreover, we explored whether the efficacy varied across different moderators (i.e., induction categories, symptom dimensions of OCD, modalities of presentation, and level of individual tailoring). In total we included 4900 participants across 90 studies. The analyses showed that there was no difference in studies using subclinical and clinical participants, confirming the utility of analogue samples. Induction procedures evoked more symptoms in (sub)clinical OCD than in healthy participants, which was most evident in the contamination symptom dimension of OCD. Analysis within (sub)clinical OCD showed a large effect size of induction procedures, especially for the threat and responsibility category and when stimuli were tailored to individuals. Analysis within healthy participants showed a medium effect size of induction procedures. The magnitude of the effect in healthy individuals was stronger for mental contamination, thought-action fusion and threat inductions.

The Social Neuroscience of Interpersonal Emotions

In our daily lives, we constantly engage in reciprocal interactions with other individuals and represent ourselves in the context of our surrounding social world. Within social interactions, humans often experience interpersonal emotions such as embarrassment, shame, guilt, or pride. How interpersonal emotions are processed on the neural systems level is of major interest for social neuroscience research. While the configuration of laboratory settings in general is constraining for emotion research, recent neuroimaging investigations came up with new approaches to implement socially interactive and immersive scenarios for the real-life investigation of interpersonal emotions. These studies could show that among other brain regions the so-called mentalizing network, which is typically involved when we represent and make sense of others' states of mind, is associated with interpersonal emotions. The anterior insula/anterior cingulate cortex network at the same time processes one's own bodily arousal during such interpersonal emotional experiences. Current research aimed to explore how we make sense of others' emotional states during social interactions and investigates the modulating factors of our emotional experiences during social interactions. Understanding how interpersonal emotions are processed on the neural systems level may yield significant implications for neuropsychiatric disorders that affect social behavior such as social anxiety disorders or autism.

Abnormal functional connectivity of the posterior cingulate cortex is associated with depressive symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease

BACKGROUND

Depressive symptoms are significant and very common psychiatric complications in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), which can aggravate the decline in social function. However, changes in the functional connectivity (FC) of the brain in AD patients with depressive symptoms (D-AD) remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether any differences exist in the FC of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) between D-AD patients and non-depressed AD patients (nD-AD).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We recruited 15 D-AD patients and 17 age-, sex-, educational level-, and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)-matched nD-AD patients to undergo tests using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and 3.0T resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Bilateral PCC were selected as the regions of interest and between-group differences in the PCC FC network were assessed using Student's t-test.

RESULTS

Compared with the nD-AD group, D-AD patients showed increased PCC FC in the right amygdala, right parahippocampus, right superior temporal pole, right middle temporal lobe, right middle temporal pole, and right hippocampus (AlphaSim correction; P<0.05). In the nD-AD group, MMSE scores were positively correlated with PCC FC in the right superior temporal pole and right hippocampus (false discovery rate corrected; P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Differences were detected in PCC FC between nD-AD and D-AD patients, which may be related to depressive symptoms. Our study provides a significant enhancement to our understanding of the functional mechanisms underlying D-AD.

Winning is not enough: ventral striatum connectivity during physical aggression

Social neuroscience studies have shown that the ventral striatum (VS), a highly reward-sensitive brain area, is activated when participants win competitive tasks. However, in these settings winning often entails both avoiding punishment and punishing the opponent. It is thus unclear whether the rewarding properties of winning are mainly associated to punishment avoidance, or if punishing the opponent can be additionally gratifying. In the present paper we explored the neurophysiological correlates of each outcome, aiming to better understand the development of aggression episodes. We previously introduced a competitive reaction time task that separates both effects: in half of the won trials, participants can physically punish their opponent (active trials), whereas in the other half they can only avoid a punishment (passive trials). We performed functional connectivity analysis seeded in the VS to test for differential network interactions in active compared to passive trials. The VS showed greater connectivity with areas involved in reward valuation (orbitofrontal cortex), arousal (dorsal thalamus and posterior insula), attention (inferior occipital gyrus), and motor control (supplementary motor area) in active compared to passive trials, whereas connectivity between the VS and the inferior frontal gyrus decreased. Interindividual variability in connectivity strength between VS and posterior insula was related to aggressive behavior, whereas connectivity between VS and supplementary motor area was related to faster reaction times in active trials. Our results suggest that punishing a provoking opponent when winning might adaptively favor a "competitive state" in the course of an aggressive interaction.

Neural markers of familial risk for depression: An investigation of cortical thickness abnormalities in healthy adolescent daughters of mothers with recurrent depression

Having a mother with major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the strongest predictors of depression in late adolescence and early adulthood. Despite this fact, we know little about the neural mechanisms involved in the intergenerational transmission of risk for depression. Twenty-eight never-disordered daughters of recurrent depressed mothers (high-risk) and 36 never-disordered daughters of never-depressed mothers (low-risk) were scanned using MRI. Scan data were processed to provide measurements of cortical gray matter thickness. A general linear model was conducted at each surface point to assess the main effect of familial risk on cortical structure as well as to explore the interaction of familial risk and age. High-risk girls exhibited significantly thinner cortical gray matter in the right fusiform gyrus relative to low-risk girls. Exploratory analyses indicated interactions of risk group and age in the bilateral anterior insula and right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC); whereas low-risk girls exhibited an inverse association between age and thickness, girls at high risk for depression showed the reverse pattern. Additional exploratory analyses, using scores on the Children's Sadness Management Scale, indicated that thinner gray matter in the ACC of high-risk girls was associated with greater difficulty in managing sadness. These findings indicate that anomalous reductions in the cortical thickness of the fusiform gyrus may be a marker of risk for MDD. The interaction of age and group for gray matter thickness of the insula and ACC suggests a particularly important role for these regions in risk for depression and warrants additional research in longitudinal studies.

Neural correlates of heart-focused interoception: a functional magnetic resonance imaging meta-analysis

Interoception is the ability to perceive one's internal body state including visceral sensations. Heart-focused interoception has received particular attention, in part due to a readily available task for behavioural assessment, but also due to accumulating evidence for a significant role in emotional experience, decision-making and clinical disorders such as anxiety and depression. Improved understanding of the underlying neural correlates is important to promote development of anatomical-functional models and suitable intervention strategies. In the present meta-analysis, nine studies reporting neural activity associated with interoceptive attentiveness (i.e. focused attention to a particular interoceptive signal for a given time interval) to one's heartbeat were submitted to a multilevel kernel density analysis. The findings corroborated an extended network associated with heart-focused interoceptive attentiveness including the posterior right and left insula, right claustrum, precentral gyrus and medial frontal gyrus. Right-hemispheric dominance emphasizes non-verbal information processing with the posterior insula presumably serving as the major gateway for cardioception. Prefrontal neural activity may reflect both top-down attention deployment and processing of feed-forward cardioceptive information, possibly orchestrated via the claustrum.This article is part of the themed issue 'Interoception beyond homeostasis: affect, cognition and mental health'.

Emotional Mental Imagery as Simulation of Reality: Fear and Beyond-A Tribute to Peter Lang

This article pays tribute to the seminal paper by Peter J. Lang (1977; this journal), "Imagery in Therapy: Information Processing Analysis of Fear." We review research and clinical practice developments in the past five decades with reference to key insights from Lang's theory and experimental work on emotional mental imagery. First, we summarize and recontextualize Lang's bio-informational theory of emotional mental imagery (1977, 1979) within contemporary theoretical developments on the function of mental imagery. Second, Lang's proposal that mental imagery can evoke emotional responses is evaluated by reviewing empirical evidence that mental imagery has a powerful impact on negative as well as positive emotions at neurophysiological and subjective levels. Third, we review contemporary cognitive and behavioral therapeutic practices that use mental imagery, and consider points of extension and departure from Lang's original investigation of mental imagery in fear-extinction behavior change. Fourth, Lang's experimental work on emotional imagery is revisited in light of contemporary research on emotional psychopathology-linked individual differences in mental imagery. Finally, key insights from Lang's experiments on training emotional response during imagery are discussed in relation to how specific techniques may be harnessed to enhance adaptive emotional mental imagery training in future research.

Frontal negativity: An electrophysiological index of interpersonal guilt

The present study aimed to reveal the temporal course and electrophysiological correlates of interpersonal guilt. Human participants were asked to perform multiple rounds of a dot-estimation task with their partners, while event-related potential being recorded. The paired participants were informed that they would win money if both responded correctly; otherwise, both of them would lose money. The feeling of guilt in Self-Wrong condition (SW) was significantly higher than that in Both-Wrong and Partner-Wrong conditions. At approximately 350 ms after the onset of feedback presentation, greater negativities were observed in the frontal regions in the guilt condition (i.e., SW) than those in the non-guilt condition. The guilt-modulated frontal negativity might reflect the interactions of self-reflection, condemnation, and negative emotion.

An experimental paradigm to repeatedly induce somatic symptoms

OBJECTIVE

Experimental research in the field of medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) is rare. We examined a method of script driven imagery in terms of manipulating the intensity of the symptom, the impairment by the symptom and the symptom tolerance. Additionally, we identified relevant predictors for the efficacy of symptom induction.

METHODS

We assessed the most impairing symptom in 48 subjects suffering from multiple, chronic MUPS and a severe physical illness that 48 age-matched healthy controls suffered from in the past. An individual script including thoughts and sensations accompanying the symptom was recorded. During the experiment, participants were exposed to the script repeatedly and then rated the intensity of, impairment by and tolerance of the symptom on a visual analog scale (VAS).

RESULTS

A mixed model repeated-measures-ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for the factor time (pre- and post-induction assessment; p<.001) but not for group (MUPS- vs. control-groups; p=.159-.314) indicating that the manipulation of all VASs was effective for both groups. The interaction time×group was significant for tolerance and post-hoc analyses showed no significant reduction for tolerance in the MUPS-group. The number of somatic symptoms and endurance behavior predicted higher induction efficacy in the MUPS-group for intensity. For healthy controls, endurance behavior and pain-persistence were associated with lower induction efficacy for all VAS.

CONCLUSION

Script-driven imagery could be a promising research procedure in the field of MUPS. It could be used to investigate short term effects of psychological interventions as well as physiological and cognitive processes accompanying symptom manipulation.

'Imagined guilt' vs 'recollected guilt': implications for fMRI

Guilt is thought to maintain social harmony by motivating reparation. This study compared two methodologies commonly used to identify the neural correlates of guilt. The first, imagined guilt, requires participants to read hypothetical scenarios and then imagine themselves as the protagonist. The second, recollected guilt, requires participants to reflect on times they personally experienced guilt. In the fMRI scanner, participants were presented with guilt/neutral memories and guilt/neutral hypothetical scenarios. Contrasts confirmed a priori predictions that guilt memories, relative to guilt scenarios, were associated with significantly greater activity in regions associated with affect [anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), Caudate, Insula, orbital frontal cortex (OFC)] and social cognition [temporal pole (TP), precuneus). Similarly, results indicated that guilt memories, relative to neutral memories, were also associated with greater activity in affective (ACC, amygdala, Insula, OFC) and social cognition (mPFC, TP, precuneus, temporo-parietal junction) regions. There were no significant differences between guilt hypothetical scenarios and neutral hypothetical scenarios in either affective or social cognition regions. The importance of distinguishing between different guilt inductions inside the scanner is discussed. We offer explanations of our results and discuss ideas for future research.

Tolerance to repeated rewarding electrical stimulation of the insular cortex

The insular cortex (IC) has been related to various reinforcing behavioral processes. This study examined the effect of electrical stimulation of the posterior agranular IC on concurrent place preferences. Two groups of animals and their respective controls underwent rewarding brain stimulation every day or on alternate days. While the rats stimulated every other day maintained their preference for the place associated with brain stimulation, those stimulated every day evidenced a reduction in their place preference, suggesting tolerance to the stimulation's rewarding effect. A 15% increase in the current intensity produced a recovery of the preferences of the daily-stimulated rats but had no effect on those stimulated on alternate days. These results are discussed in terms of the rewarding effects induced by different electrical and chemical rewarding agents.

Neural correlates of processing "self-conscious" vs. "basic" emotions

Self-conscious emotions are prevalent in our daily lives and play an important role in both normal and pathological behavior. Despite their immense significance, the neural substrates that are involved in the processing of such emotions are surprisingly under-studied. In light of this, we conducted an fMRI study in which participants thought of various personal events which elicited feelings of negative and positive self-conscious (i.e., guilt, pride) or basic (i.e., anger, joy) emotions. We performed a conjunction analysis to investigate the neural correlates associated with processing events that are related to self-conscious vs. basic emotions, irrespective of valence. The results show that processing self-conscious emotions resulted in activation within frontal areas associated with self-processing and self-control, namely, the mPFC extending to the dACC, and within the lateral-dorsal prefrontal cortex. Processing basic emotions resulted in activation throughout relatively phylogenetically-ancient regions of the cortex, namely in visual and tactile processing areas and in the insular cortex. Furthermore, self-conscious emotions differentially activated the mPFC such that the negative self-conscious emotion (guilt) was associated with a more dorsal activation, and the positive self-conscious emotion (pride) was associated with a more ventral activation. We discuss how these results shed light on the nature of mental representations and neural systems involved in self-reflective and affective processing.

Deontological guilt and obsessive compulsive disorder

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The emotion of guilt plays a pivotal role in the genesis and maintenance of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). But what kind of guilt do OC patients want to prevent? Several studies suggest the existence of two different types of guilt emotions, namely deontological and altruistic guilt. This research suggests that the former, more than the latter, is involved in OCD. Studies in which people must hypothetically choose between killing one person to save a few (consequentialist choice) or take no action and allow things to take their course (omission choice), have found that the latter is consistent with the "Do not play God" moral principle whereas the former is consistent with altruistic motivations. This paper is aimed at verifying whether both OC patients, with no induction, and nonclinical participants, after the induction of deontological guilt prefer omission more often than a consequentialist option. It is hypothesized that people with OCD will be motivated to avoid feeling deontological guilt and thus will be more likely to opt for omission. Similarly, nonclinical participants who receive a deontological guilt induction will also be more likely to choose omission.

METHOD

In two studies participants were given seven scenarios (four moral dilemmas, three control scenarios). Twenty patients with OCD, 20 anxious controls, and 20 healthy participants took part in study 1. In study 2, we recruited 70 healthy participants who were randomly assigned to receive a deontological guilt or a control induction.

RESULTS

Consistent with hypotheses, in Study 1 OC patients preferred omission, instead of the consequentialist option, moreso than did the clinical and nonclinical controls. In Study 2, the group receiving the deontological guilt induction preferred omission to a greater extent than did the altruistic group.

LIMITATIONS

The present study cannot establish that the goal of preventing or neutralizing deontological guilt actually drives obsessions and compulsions.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide further evidence that people with OCD are more sensitive to deontological guilt, compared to other people. They thus contribute to improve the moral appraisal theory of OCD.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder--A question of conscience? An fMRI study of behavioural and neurofunctional correlates of shame and guilt

Shame and guilt can be described as 'self-conscious emotions' and are an essential part of the psychopathology in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Our primary aim was to explore whether individuals with OCD are processing shame and guilt differently from healthy individuals (N = 20 in both groups; 50% female; age: 20-40 years) on the behavioural and neurobiological level. For the experimental task, participants were scanned with functional magnetic resonance tomography (functional magnetic resonance imaging, 3 T) while imagining neutral, shame inducing and guilt inducing scenarios. In addition to clinical questionnaires, participants were asked to complete questionnaires measuring shame and guilt. The functional data indicate an increased activity in OCD patients in the shame condition in the limbic, temporal and sub-lobar (hypothalamus) areas, in the guilt condition inter alia in frontal, limbic and temporal areas. In summary we found activity in OCD patients in neural networks which are responsible for stimulus filtering, emotion regulation, impulse control and memory. The results from our study may contribute to a better understanding of the origins and maintenance of OCD in association with the pathological processing of shame and guilt on different functional levels.

Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Patients with Long-Term Remission of Cushing's Disease

Glucocorticoid disturbance can be a cause of psychiatric symptoms. Cushing's disease represents a unique model for examining the effects of prolonged exposure to high levels of endogenous cortisol on the human brain as well as for examining the relation between these effects and psychiatric symptomatology. This study aimed to investigate resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the limbic network, the default mode network (DMN), and the executive control network in patients with long-term remission of Cushing's disease. RSFC of these three networks of interest was compared between patients in remission of Cushing's disease (n=24; 4 male, mean age=44.96 years) and matched healthy controls (n=24; 4 male, mean age=46.5 years), using probabilistic independent component analysis to extract the networks and a dual regression method to compare both groups. Psychological and cognitive functioning was assessed with validated questionnaires and interviews. In comparison with controls, patients with remission of Cushing's disease showed an increased RSFC between the limbic network and the subgenual subregion of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as well as an increased RSFC of the DMN in the left lateral occipital cortex. However, these findings were not associated with psychiatric symptoms in the patient group. Our data indicate that previous exposure to hypercortisolism is related to persisting changes in brain function.

Large-scale brain networks of the human left temporal pole: a functional connectivity MRI study

The most rostral portion of the human temporal cortex, the temporal pole (TP), has been described as "enigmatic" because its functional neuroanatomy remains unclear. Comparative anatomy studies are only partially helpful, because the human TP is larger and cytoarchitectonically more complex than in nonhuman primates. Considered by Brodmann as a single area (BA 38), the human TP has been recently parceled into an array of cytoarchitectonic subfields. In order to clarify the functional connectivity of subregions of the TP, we undertook a study of 172 healthy adults using resting-state functional connectivity MRI. Remarkably, a hierarchical cluster analysis performed to group the seeds into distinct subsystems according to their large-scale functional connectivity grouped 87.5% of the seeds according to the recently described cytoarchitectonic subregions of the TP. Based on large-scale functional connectivity, there appear to be 4 major subregions of the TP: (1) dorsal, with predominant connectivity to auditory/somatosensory and language networks; (2) ventromedial, predominantly connected to visual networks; (3) medial, connected to paralimbic structures; and (4) anterolateral, connected to the default-semantic network. The functional connectivity of the human TP, far more complex than its known anatomic connectivity in monkey, is concordant with its hypothesized role as a cortical convergence zone.