The Neural Signatures of Shame, Embarrassment and Guilt: A Voxel-based Meta-analysis on Functional Neuroimaging Studies

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.

Two Sides of the Same Coin in Female Borderline Personality Disorder: Self-Reported Guilt and Shame and Their Neurofunctional Correlates

“…We expected BPD patients to report higher levels of dispositional (general) and situational shame and guilt induced by experimental stimulation than the HCs. In accordance with this, we expected neural activation in BPD patients to be stronger in the known regions related to shame and guilt processing, namely the insula, cingulate cortex, TPJ, dlPFC, as well as in the sensor-and premotor cortex [32], compared to the HCs.…”

“…Different patterns of pronounced cortical activation during the processing of shame and guilt were identified for BPD patients and healthy controls. The regions that emerged from this contrast analysis have-in part-been named important in the processing of guilt and shame in general [31,32]. However, we conclude that different processes are distinctly pronounced in each group: the activation patterns shown by the HCs indicate increased memory-related processing, stronger imagination processes, and a stronger focus on social relevance compared to the BPD patients.…”

“…During the shame condition, stronger activations in the posterior and anterior cingulate cortex were found in BPD patients compared to controls. The cingulate cortex is often credited with self-referential processing or cognitive emotional regulation and control of negative stimuli/harmful and stressful experiencing or morally negative emotions [32,55,[60][61][62]. Additionally, stronger activations for BPD patients than for healthy controls were found in the gyrus fusiformis, which has been discussed in the literature previously in association with emotional processing of negative stimuli in BPD patients [63,64].…”

“…Systematic reviews and meta-analyses found both shared and unique neural representations of shame and guilt. Most of the evidence supports an involvement of the anterior insula (AI; relevant for general emotional experience, inner awareness, and excitement) and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC; social pain, negative emotional states, and their processing) in both emotions [31,32]. However, guilt is specifically associated with activation in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ; social cognitive processes), while shame corresponds to activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC; cognitive and emotional regulatory processes), the cingulate cortex (processing of self-referential mental states) and the sensorimotor or premotor cortex [31,32].…”

Guilt, shame, and embarrassment: similar or different emotions? A comparison between Italians and Americans

“…In our daily life, we often tend to use the terms embarrassment, shame, and guilt as synonyms, as these emotions labels are often confused and used interchangeably. The source of this confusion might originate from several factors as these emotions are phenomenologically interrelated, they often coexist (Harder, 1995;Ferguson and Crowley, 1997), their neural correlates partially overlap (Bastin et al, 2016;Piretti et al, 2023), and they might not be precisely defined in the common language (Tangney et al, 1996). Moreover, although a large body of research considers these terms distinct emotions, the scientific debate about the characteristic features is still open.…”