eprintid: 2892
rev_number: 7
eprint_status: archive
userid: 72
dir: disk0/00/00/28/92
datestamp: 2015-11-11 15:09:01
lastmod: 2016-09-13 09:46:52
status_changed: 2015-11-11 15:09:01
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Ricciardi, Emiliano
creators_name: Rota, Giuseppina
creators_name: Sani, Lorenzo
creators_name: Gentili, Claudio
creators_name: Gaglianese, Anna
creators_name: Guazzelli, Mario
creators_name: Pietrini, Pietro
creators_id: emiliano.ricciardi@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: pietro.pietrini@imtlucca.it
title: How the brain heals emotional wounds: the functional neuroanatomy of forgiveness
ispublished: pub
subjects: RC0321
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: public
abstract: In life, everyone goes through hurtful events caused by significant others: a deceiving friend, a betraying partner, or an unjustly blaming parent. In response to painful emotions, individuals may react with anger, hostility, and the desire for revenge. As an alternative, they may decide to forgive the wrongdoer and relinquish resentment. In the present study, we examined the brain correlates of forgiveness using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Healthy participants were induced to imagine social scenarios that described emotionally hurtful events followed by the indication to either forgive the imagined offenders, or harbor a grudge toward them. Subjects rated their imaginative skills, levels of anger, frustration, and/or relief when imagining negative events as well as following forgiveness. Forgiveness was associated with positive emotional states as compared to unforgiveness. Granting forgiveness was associated with activations in a brain network involved in theory of mind, empathy, and the regulation of affect through cognition, which comprised the precuneus, right inferior parietal regions, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Our results uncovered the neuronal basis of reappraisal-driven forgiveness, and extend extant data on emotional regulation to the resolution of anger and resentment following negative interpersonal events.
date: 2013-12-09
publication: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
volume: 7
number: 839
publisher: Frontiers
id_number: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00839
refereed: TRUE
issn: 1662-5161
official_url: http://www.frontiersin.org/human_neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00839/abstract
citation:   Ricciardi, Emiliano and Rota, Giuseppina and Sani, Lorenzo and Gentili, Claudio and Gaglianese, Anna and Guazzelli, Mario and Pietrini, Pietro  How the brain heals emotional wounds: the functional neuroanatomy of forgiveness.  Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7 (839).   ISSN 1662-5161      (2013)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2892/1/fnhum-07-00839.pdf