+Guilt In Depression Has Different Brain Response, Suggesting Freud Was Right

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Depression Also Included In: MRI / PET / Ultrasound; Article Date: 06 Jun 2012 - 2:00 PST Dr Roland Zahn, from the University's School of Psychological Sciences, told the press: Psychology / Psychiatry; Neurology / Neuroscience

"For the first time, we chart the regions of the brain that interact to link detailed knowledge about socially appropriate behavior - the anterior temporal lobe - with feelings of guilt - the subgenual region of the brain - in people who are prone to depression." For their study, Zahn and colleagues took fMRI scans of people while they imagined themselves or their best friend acting badly (eg in a mean, tactless or bossy way) towards others, and said what they felt, for instance, guilt, shame, contempt, or disgust, and whether this was toward self or another. The participants were 25 people who had been in remission from depression for over a year (16 of whom were not currently taking anti-depressants), and 22 healthy volunteers with no history of depression who served as controls. Previous studies have suggested that the subgenual cingulate cortex and adjacent septal region (SCSR) become active when we feel guilty, and in healthy people with a low risk of depression, this effect is "selective relative to equally unpleasant feelings associated with blaming others (indignation/anger)", write the researchers. The anterior temporal lobe (ATL) has also been consistently implicated in moral feelings such as guilt, but unlike the SCSR, this part of the brain is "activated irrespective of the type of moral feeling, whether it is guilt or indignation", they note. There is also evidence to suggest the right superior ATL is important for constructing social concepts that help us make different judgements (eg such as distinguishing merely critical from fault-finding behavior). This in turn protects us against over-generalization and self-blame (eg my pointing out a typing error in a colleague's piece of writing means "I am critical" as opposed to "I am unlikable"). So, prior to this latest study, it had already been proposed, but not shown, that a coupling between these two brain areas, or "ATL-SCSR functional coupling", helps people with low risk of depression blame themselves in an "adaptive" way, without damaging their self-worth or hating themselves.

Zahn and colleagues found the fMRI scans showed the coupling between these brain regions was weaker in the group with a history of depression than in the healthy controls with no history of depression.