Journal article

Neurodevelopmental correlates of proneness to guilt and shame in adolescence and early adulthood

Sarah Whittle, Kirra Liu, Coralie Bastin, Ben J Harrison, Christopher G Davey

DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2016

Abstract

Investigating how brain development during adolescence and early adulthood underlies guilt- and shame-proneness may be important for understanding risk processes for mental disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the neurodevelopmental correlates of interpersonal guilt- and shame-proneness in healthy adolescents and young adults using structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). Sixty participants (age range: 15-25) completed sMRI and self-report measures of interpersonal guilt- and shame-proneness. Independent of interpersonal guilt, higher levels of shame-proneness were associated with thinner posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) thickness and smaller amygdala volume. Higher level..

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC)


Awarded by NHMRC Clinical Career Development Fellowship


Awarded by NHMRC Biomedical Career Development Fellowship


Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Project Grant to BJH (ID: 1064643). BJH was supported by a NHMRC Clinical Career Development Fellowship (ID: 628509). SW was supported by a NHMRC Biomedical Career Development Fellowship (ID: 1007716). We thank Dr. Rebecca Kerestes and Ms Katerina Stephanou for their assistance with data collection. We also thank staff from the Sunshine Hospital Medical Imaging Department (Western Health, Melbourne) for their contribution to this work.