Journal
NEUROIMAGE
Volume 33, Issue 1, Pages 414-421Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.06.011
Keywords
social response reversal; ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; guilt; embarrassment; moral transgression; social transgression
Funding
- Intramural NIH HHS Funding Source: Medline
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We examined the impact of witnesses on the neural response to moral and social transgressions using fMRI. In this study, participants (N = 16) read short vignettes describing moral and social transgressions in the presence or absence of an audience. In line with our hypothesis, ventrolateral (BA 47) and dorsomedial (BA 8) frontal cortex showed increased BOLD responses to moral transgressions regardless of audience and to social transgressions in the presence of an audience relative to neutral situations. These findings are consistent with the suggestion that these regions of prefrontal cortex modify behavioral responses in response to social cues. Greater activity was observed in left temporal-parietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex and temporal poles to moral and to a lesser extent social transgressions relative to neutral stories, regardless of audience. These regions have been implicated in the representation of the mental states of others (Theory of Mind). The presence of an audience was associated with increased left amygdala activity across all conditions. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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