The Moral Brain: an fMRI study of the neural correlates of forgiveness and unforgiveness in humans G. Rota, E. Ricciardi, L. Sani, C. Gentili, N. Vanello, M. Guazzelli & P. Pietrini UniversitĂ di Pisa
Throughout history, forgiveness has been endorsed by religion ("If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also� Luke 6:27-29), and by politics (Gandhi, 1931) as a morally righteous way to respond to aggression. Besides being a morally virtuous act, letting go of the desire of revenge positively affects the well-being of the individuals allowing them to overcome emotionally detrimental thinking linked to past hurtful events. In this study, we investigated the neural basis of forgiveness and unforgiveness using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Participants were engaged in mental imagery of hurtful interpersonal events and instructed to either grant forgiveness, or hold a grudge towards the offender. Subsequently, they judged their imaging abilities and levels of relief following forgiveness. Both forgiveness and unforgiveness elicited activation in the anterior and middle cingulate cortex, suggesting that these regions may play an important role in the homeostatic process of re-establishing the subjective emotional balance after a hurtful interpersonal event. Both decisions elicited activation in the precuneus: this region supports perspective-taking processes and was presumably engaged for making sense of the mind of the offender. Specifically, forgiveness was associated with a positive emotional state, and relied on a brain network comprising the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal regions, involved in the regulation of emotion through cognition, theory of mind and empathy. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thought to support the cognitive reframing of the meaning of the negative event through cognitive strategies. The inferior parietal cortex is engaged when empathising with the suffering of the other. Thus, the ability to forgive seems to be fostered by the understanding that the offender is not different from the self, and that everyone may behave unfairly under the same circumstances ("May he who is without sin cast the first stone" Romans 13:3-4). Contatto e-mail: g.rota@med.unipi.it