Investigating the functional anatomy of empathy and forgiveness

Farrow, Tom F.D.; Zheng, Ying; Wilkinson, Iain D.; Spence, Sean A.; Deakin, J.F.K.; Tarrier, Nick; Griffiths, Paul; Woodruff, Peter

doi:10.1097/00001756-200108080-00029

Cited by 296 publications

(174 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…58 This broad functionality underlines the role of the precuneus in many highly integrated mental functions that are not limited to simple visuospatial processing. This assumption is supported by fMRI studies investigating social cognition 62 and emotional state attribution. 63 Therefore, previous research with regard to anatomic connectivity has helped to clarify the nature of structural reductions of the orbitofrontal cortex in depressed patients and the association with increased cerebral activity in the reported structures in the context of emotional processing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Orbitofrontal volume reductions during emotion recognition in patients with major depression

Scheuerecker

Meisenzahl

Koutsouleris

et al. 2010

jpn

107

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311Background: Major depressive disorder is associated with both structural and functional alterations in the emotion regulation network of the central nervous system. The relation between structural and functional changes is largely unknown. Therefore, we sought to determine the relation between structural differences and functional alterations during the recognition of emotional facial expressions. Methods: We examined 13 medication-free patients with major depression and 15 healthy controls by use of structural T 1 -weighted high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional MRI during 1 session. We set the statistical threshold for the analysis of imaging data to p < 0.001 (uncorrected). Results: As shown by voxel-based morphometry, depressed patients had reductions in orbitofrontal cortex volume and increases in cerebellar volume. Additionally, depressed patients showed increased activity during emotion recognition in the middle frontal cortex, caudate nucleus, precuneus and lingual gyrus. Within this cerebral network, the orbitofrontal volumes were negatively correlated in depressed patients but not in healthy controls with changes in blood oxygen level-dependent signal in the middle frontal gyrus, caudate nucleus, precuneus and supplementary motor area. Limitations: Our results are limited by the relatively small sample size. Conclusions: This combined functional and structural MRI study provides evidence that the orbitofrontal cortex is a key area in major depression and that structural changes result in functional alterations within the emotional circuit. Whether these alterations in the orbitofrontal cortex are also related to persistent emotional dysfunction in remitted mental states and, therefore, are related to the risk of depression needs further exploration.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Orbitofrontal volume reductions during emotion recognition in patients with major depression

Scheuerecker

Meisenzahl

Koutsouleris

et al. 2010

jpn

107

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“…This activation was observed in prior studies of moral reasoning and was specifically associated with evaluating the appropriateness of solutions to personal moral dilemmas (Greene et al, 2001). The posterior cingulate cortex has been implicated in seemingly diverse functions including the experience of emotion (Mayberg et al, 1999), recall of emotional memories (Maratos, Dolan, Morris, Henson, & Rugg, 2001;Maddock, Garrett, & Buonocore, 2003), reward processing (Knutson et al, 2003), forgivability (Farrow et al, 2001), and self-reference (Fossati et al, 2003, Johnson et al, 2002and Kelley et al, 2002Ruby and Decety, 2003). The posterior cingulate cortex is also activated by the successful recall of autobiographical memories (Maddock, Garrett, & Buonocore, 2001;Piefke, Weiss, Zilles, Markowitsch, & Fink, 2003).…”

Section: Dorsal Posterior Cingulate Cortexmentioning

confidence: 69%

The neural processing of moral sensitivity to issues of justice and care

et al. 2007

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Kilts, C. (2007). The neural processing of moral sensitivity to issues of justice and care.. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/neuroethics_pubs/44The neural processing of moral sensitivity to issues of justice and care. AbstractThe empirical and theoretical consideration of ethical decision making has focused on the process of moral judgment; however, a precondition to judgment is moral sensitivity, the ability to detect and evaluate moral issues [Rest, J. R. (1984). The major components of morality. In W. Kurtines & J. Gewirtz (Eds.), Morality, moral behaviour, and moral development (pp. 24-38). New York, NY: Wiley]. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and contextually standardized, real life moral issues, we demonstrate that sensitivity to moral issues is associated with activation of the polar medial prefrontal cortex, dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, and posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). These activations suggest that moral sensitivity is related to access to knowledge unique to one's self, supported by autobiographical memory retrieval and social perspective taking. We also assessed whether sensitivity to rule-based or "justice" moral issues versus social situational or "care" moral issues is associated with dissociable neural processing events. Sensitivity to justice issues was associated with greater activation of the left intraparietal sulcus, whereas sensitivity to care issues was associated with greater activation of the ventral posterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and thalamus. These results suggest a role for access to self histories and identities and social perspectives in sensitivity to moral issues, provide neural representations of the subcomponent process of moral sensitivity originally proposed by Rest, and support differing neural information processing for the interpretive recognition of justice and care moral issues. AbstractThe empirical and theoretical consideration of ethical decision making has focused on the process of moral judgment; however, a precondition to judgment is moral sensitivity, the ability to detect and evaluate moral issues [Rest, J. R. (1984). The major components of morality. In W. Kurtines & J. Gewirtz (Eds.), Morality, moral behaviour, and moral development (pp. 24-38). New York, NY: Wiley]. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and contextually standardized, real life moral issues, we demonstrate that sensitivity to moral issues is associated with activation of the polar medial prefrontal cortex, dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, and posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). These activations suggest that moral sensitivity is related to access to knowledge unique to one's self, supported by autobiographical memory retrieval and social perspective taking. We also assessed whether sensitivity to rule-based or "justice" moral issues versus social situational or "care" moral issues is associated with dissociable neural processing events. Sensitivity to justice issues was associated...

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“…Macaskill, Maltby, and Day (2002) reported a relationship between empathy and forgiveness of others but not oneself. Farrow et al (2001) even showed common neurophysiological correlates of empathy and forgiveness. In sum, multiple forms of evidence point to a link between empathy and forgiveness.…”

Section: Empathy and Forgivenessmentioning

confidence: 98%

Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Empathy and Forgiveness

Toussaint

Webb

2005

The Journal of Social Psychology

336

189

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Much research has shown that women are more empathic than men. Yet, women and men are equally forgiving. However, it is not clear whether empathy is more important to forgiveness for men or for women. The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in levels of empathy and forgiveness and the extent to which the association of empathy and forgiveness differed by gender. Participants were 127 community residents who completed self-report measures of empathy and forgiveness. The present results showed that women were more empathic than men, but no gender difference for forgiveness was apparent. However, the association between empathy and forgiveness did differ by gender. Empathy was associated with forgiveness in men-but not in women.

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Investigating the functional anatomy of empathy and forgiveness

Cited by 296 publications

References 22 publications

Orbitofrontal volume reductions during emotion recognition in patients with major depression

Orbitofrontal volume reductions during emotion recognition in patients with major depression

The neural processing of moral sensitivity to issues of justice and care

Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Empathy and Forgiveness

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