The Neural Association between Tendency to Forgive and Spontaneous Brain Activity in Healthy Young Adults

Abstract

The tendency to forgive (TTF) refers to one's global dispositional level of forgiveness across situations and relationships. Previous brain imaging studies examined activation patterns underlying forgiving process, yet the association between individual differences in the TTF and spontaneous brain activity at resting-state remains unknown. In this study, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the correlation between the TTF and spontaneous brain activity in a young adult sample. Participants were 178 young students (55 men) who completed the TTF scale and underwent a resting-state fMRI scan. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between the regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and TTF scores corrected for age and sex. Results showed that the ALFF value in the right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), precuneus and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) were negatively associated with TTF scores. These findings suggest that the spontaneous brain activity of brain regions like the dmPFC, precuneus and IPL which are implicated in mentalizing and empathic response are associated with individual differences in the TTF.

A unitary caring science resilience-building model: Unifying the human caring theory and research-informed psychology and neuroscience evidence

“…Research that examined brain structures underlying forgiving responses showed that higher tendency to forgive scores were positively correlated with the gray matter volume in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a brain area that plays a significant role in envisioning others’ feelings and showing empathy; the tendency to forgive was negatively related to the gray matter volume in the right insular cortex and inferior frontal gyrus, indicating being more forgiving [ 35 , 36 ]. Studies on the effects of mindfulness practice indicated that focusing on the present moments could increase the hippocampus’ gray-matter density (a brain area important for learning and memory) and decrease it in the amygdala, the emotional center playing an important role in causing anxiety and stress [ 37 ].…”

Forgiveness, Marital Quality, and Marital Stability in the Early Years of Chinese Marriage: An Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Model

“…Since Fenell (1993) found that forgiveness is integral to a long-lasting marriage, forgiveness has received increasing attention from researchers because of its positive influence on marital quality and marital stability via the adaptive process by mending inevitable injuries and transgressions (e.g., Fenell, 1993 ; McCullough et al, 1998 ; McNulty, 2008 ; David and Stafford, 2015 ). Despite there is a lack of consensus on the definition of forgiveness, researchers agree that forgiveness involves a prosocial changing process toward the transgressor ( McCullough et al, 2001 ; Li and Lu, 2017 ), in which negative motivation (e.g., unforgiveness) decrease and positive emotions increase ( McCullough et al, 2003 ; Fincham et al, 2005 ). While several scholars proposed that the forgiveness process incorporates an intellectual decision to forgive, as well as an emotional forgiveness component ( Enright, 1996 ; Strelan and Covic, 2006 ), empirical evidence in respect to the different roles between decisional and emotional forgiveness on marital stability is rare.…”

Moral Injury and PTSD: Often Co-Occurring Yet Mechanistically Different

“…The task-activated functional MRI (fMRI) study reported higher activity in multiple areas (pink) when participants were instructed to forgive compared with when they were instructed to not forgive offenders (12). The resting-state fMRI study reported that higher scores on the tendency to forgive scale (i.e., more likely to forgive transgressions by others) were negatively correlated with spontaneous activity (amplitude of low frequency fluctuation [ALFF]) in regions associated with mentalizing and self-referential processing (blue) (13). In the absence of studies on selfforgiveness, the neural correlates of loving kindness meditation may be informative.…”

“…An fMRI study of experienced meditators reported that loving kindness meditation (compared with resting-state) resulted in both increases (left medial and anterior prefrontal cortices) and decreases (left parieto-occipital cortex) in activity (14). It is noteworthy that the areas of decreased activity partially overlap with areas in which lower resting-state activity correlated with higher forgiveness (13,14).…”

“…A common theme of interventions to promote healing from moral injury is the importance of forgiveness(9)(10)(11). Two studies of healthy individuals have identified neural correlates related to forgiving others for transgressions(12,13). The task-activated functional MRI (fMRI) study reported higher activity in multiple areas (pink) when participants were instructed to forgive compared with when they were instructed to not forgive offenders(12).…”