title: The voice of conscience: neural bases of interpersonal guilt and compensation.
abstract: People feel bad for inflicting harms upon others; this emotional state is termed interpersonal guilt. In this study, the participant played multiple rounds of a dot-estimation task with anonymous partners while undergoing fMRI. The partner would receive pain stimulation if the partner or the participant or both responded incorrectly; the participant was then given the option to intervene and bear a proportion of pain for the partner. The level of pain voluntarily taken and the activations in anterior middle cingulate cortex (aMCC) and bilateral anterior insula (AI) were higher when the participant was solely responsible for the stimulation (Self_Incorrect) than when both committed an error (Both_Incorrect). Moreover, the gray matter volume in the aMCC predicted the individual's compensation behavior, measured as the difference between the level of pain taken in the Self_Incorrect and Both_Incorrect conditions. Furthermore, a mediation pathway analysis revealed that activation in a midbrain region mediated the relationship between aMCC activation and the individual's tendency to compensate. These results demonstrate that the aMCC and the midbrain nucleus not only play an important role in experiencing interpersonal guilt, but also contribute to compensation behavior.
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education) and School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hongbo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education) and School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education) and School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education) and School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of ChinaCenter for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education) and School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of ChinaCenter for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education) and School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China xz104@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D006167:Guilt; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009929:Organ Size; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology; D014836:Volition / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: anterior middle cingulate; fMRI; gray matter volume; interpersonal guilt; mediation pathway analysis
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