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Mean diffusivity related to rule-breaking guilt: the Macbeth effect in the sensorimotor regions

Seishu Nakagawa1,2, Hikaru Takeuchi3, Yasuyuki Taki3,4,5

  • 1Division of Psychiatry, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Sendai, Japan. seishu.nakagawa.e8@tohoku.ac.jp.

Scientific Reports
|August 24, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Feelings of guilt related to breaking rules correlate with changes in white matter (WM) in the brain's sensory and motor areas. This finding links guilt to neural pathways involved in physical sensations and actions.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Neuroimaging

Background:

  • Guilt is a complex emotion linked to social cognition and moral reasoning.
  • Excessive guilt proneness may be associated with obsessive-compulsive disorders.
  • Neural correlates of guilt, particularly white matter (WM) structures, remain largely undetermined.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between specific WM structures and the degree of guilt.
  • To explore the neural basis of guilt using diffusion MRI.
  • To test the hypothesis that WM structures involved in guilt are linked to social and moral cognition.

Main Methods:

  • Diffusion MRI was used to examine WM structures in 1196 healthy young students.
  • The Guilty Feeling Scale assessed guilt in interpersonal (IPS) and rule-breaking (RBS) situations.
  • Regional WM metrics, including volume, fractional anisotropy, and mean diffusivity (MD), were analyzed.

Main Results:

  • A positive correlation was found between mean diffusivity (MD) in the right somatosensory and motor cortices (arm to hand) and rule-breaking situation (RBS) guilt scores.
  • These findings align with the Macbeth effect, suggesting a link between guilt, sensory-motor pathways, and ritualistic behaviors like hand-washing.

Conclusions:

  • The study identifies specific WM alterations in sensory and motor regions associated with rule-breaking guilt.
  • This provides novel insights into the neurobiological underpinnings of guilt and its potential connection to obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

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