{"id":{"repo_id":"uwo","oai_identifier":"oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/35056"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uwo/oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/35056","repository":{"repo_id":"uwo","name":"Western University","base_url":"https://uwo.scholaris.ca/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The Neural Correlates of Guilt and Restitution During a Social Decision Making Task","abstract":"Guilt is a social emotion that promotes prosocial and moral behaviours. It arises as a result of harming another individual, serving as a prompt for the guilty individual to take reparative actions, known as restitution. The neural regions that are involved in guilt and restitution, however, are not currently known. To identify these regions, we employed a novel social decision-making fMRI paradigm involving donations to charities. There was a significant positive correlation between trait guilt and BOLD signal in the vlPFC and mPFC during acts of restitution. Furthermore, choices of harm when compared to help showed increased BOLD signal in the amygdala, insula, and the superior temporal sulcus. The present results are consistent with past studies that indicate an important role of the vlPFC and mPFC for processing aversive social cues and to resolve decision conflict.","abstract_html":"Guilt is a social emotion that promotes prosocial and moral behaviours. It arises as a result of harming another individual, serving as a prompt for the guilty individual to take reparative actions, known as restitution. The neural regions that are involved in guilt and restitution, however, are not currently known. To identify these regions, we employed a novel social decision-making fMRI paradigm involving donations to charities. There was a significant positive correlation between trait guilt and BOLD signal in the vlPFC and mPFC during acts of restitution. Furthermore, choices of harm when compared to help showed increased BOLD signal in the amygdala, insula, and the superior temporal sulcus. The present results are consistent with past studies that indicate an important role of the vlPFC and mPFC for processing aversive social cues and to resolve decision conflict.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ty, Ambrose"],"institution":"The University of Western Ontario","degree_name":"M Sc","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Neuroscience","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Elizabeth Finger"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-07-18","date_published":"2014-07-18","updated_at":"2026-07-27T21:56:14Z","subjects":["Guilt","Social decision making","fMRI","charities"],"languages":["en_ca"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/35056","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Elizabeth Finger"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ty, Ambrose"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2025-07-10T20:34:52Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-07-10T20:34:52Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2014-07-18"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["The University of Western Ontario"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Neuroscience"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M Sc"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Guilt","Social decision making","fMRI","charities"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en_ca"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/35056"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The thesis cover page in the PDF document includes references to Western University’s previous institutional repository platform, known as Scholarship@Western, and links to that platform (beginning with ir.lib.uwo.ca). In citing or referring to this thesis, use the DOI or handle from this page instead. Sample citation: Author name, \"Thesis title.\" (Year). Western University Open Repository. https://doi.org/10.71858/123456."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Guilt is a social emotion that promotes prosocial and moral behaviours. It arises as a result of harming another individual, serving as a prompt for the guilty individual to take reparative actions, known as restitution. The neural regions that are involved in guilt and restitution, however, are not currently known. To identify these regions, we employed a novel social decision-making fMRI paradigm involving donations to charities. There was a significant positive correlation between trait guilt and BOLD signal in the vlPFC and mPFC during acts of restitution. Furthermore, choices of harm when compared to help showed increased BOLD signal in the amygdala, insula, and the superior temporal sulcus. The present results are consistent with past studies that indicate an important role of the vlPFC and mPFC for processing aversive social cues and to resolve decision conflict."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Neural Correlates of Guilt and Restitution During a Social Decision Making Task"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Elizabeth Finger"],"dc:creator":["Ty, Ambrose"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2025-07-10T20:34:52Z"],"dc:date.available":["2025-07-10T20:34:52Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2014-07-18"],"dc:description":["The thesis cover page in the PDF document includes references to Western University’s previous institutional repository platform, known as Scholarship@Western, and links to that platform (beginning with ir.lib.uwo.ca). In citing or referring to this thesis, use the DOI or handle from this page instead. Sample citation: Author name, \"Thesis title.\" (Year). Western University Open Repository. https://doi.org/10.71858/123456."],"dc:description.abstract":["Guilt is a social emotion that promotes prosocial and moral behaviours. It arises as a result of harming another individual, serving as a prompt for the guilty individual to take reparative actions, known as restitution. The neural regions that are involved in guilt and restitution, however, are not currently known. To identify these regions, we employed a novel social decision-making fMRI paradigm involving donations to charities. There was a significant positive correlation between trait guilt and BOLD signal in the vlPFC and mPFC during acts of restitution. Furthermore, choices of harm when compared to help showed increased BOLD signal in the amygdala, insula, and the superior temporal sulcus. The present results are consistent with past studies that indicate an important role of the vlPFC and mPFC for processing aversive social cues and to resolve decision conflict."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/35056"],"dc:language.iso":["en_ca"],"dc:publisher":["The University of Western Ontario"],"dc:subject":["Guilt","Social decision making","fMRI","charities"],"dc:title":["The Neural Correlates of Guilt and Restitution During a Social Decision Making Task"],"dc:type":["thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Neuroscience"],"thesis:degree_name":["M Sc"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T21:56:14Z"}