Brain scans shed light on why people with autistic traits feel more shame and less guilt

Differences in how certain brain regions communicate with one another may help explain why individuals with higher levels of autistic traits tend to experience more shame and less guilt than others, according to a new study published in Personality Neuroscience.

Shame and guilt are both emotions that arise in response to perceived wrongdoing, yet they are distinct. Shame involves an overall negative evaluation of oneself as a person—an experience that typically leads individuals to withdraw from social situations and avoid others. Guilt, on the other hand, centers on a specific behavior or action rather than the self as a whole and tends to motivate individuals to take responsibility and make amends.

Research has shown that individuals with autism or higher levels of autistic traits—which exist on a spectrum in the general population—tend to experience more shame and less guilt than people without autistic traits. This pattern may be related to known differences in social thinking, including difficulties in imagining how a situation looks from another person’s perspective. However, the brain mechanisms behind this pattern have not previously been explored using neuroimaging.

Savio W.H. Wong of the Chinese University of Hong Kong led a team to investigate this gap in the literature. The researchers recruited 45 neurotypical young adults (adults without an autism diagnosis) in Hong Kong (20 females; average age 22 years).

Participants completed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans while at rest, as well as questionnaires measuring their levels of autistic traits (using the Autism Spectrum Quotient and the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire) and their tendency to experience shame and guilt (using the Test of Self-Conscious Affect 3).

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The researchers then employed a data-driven approach to identify which brain regions showed patterns of connectivity that were related to shame and guilt before testing whether those connectivity patterns could statistically explain the link between autistic traits and these emotions.

The study found that a region called the right frontal pole—located at the very front of the brain—showed connectivity patterns that were associated with both autistic traits and proneness to shame and guilt.

Specifically, how strongly this region communicated with a cluster of areas known as the cortical midline structures—brain regions deeply involved in self-reflection and understanding others’ minds—partially explained why people with higher autistic traits tended to experience more shame and less guilt. In particular, connectivity between the right frontal pole and an area called the precuneus was found to mediate both relationships.

The authors concluded: “These findings highlight the role of the cortical midline structures as a key neural substrate underlying differential experiences of negative self-conscious emotions among individuals with high autistic traits.”

Some limitations are to be noted. Because the study was cross-sectional and relied on resting-state scans, it cannot prove that these brain networks cause the emotional differences, only that they are strongly linked. Furthermore, the study only included neurotypical individuals, meaning it is unclear whether the same patterns would appear in people with an autism diagnosis.

The study, “Autistic traits and proneness to shame and guilt: The mediating role of functional connectivity of cortical midline structures,” was authored by Isaac N. Ip, Hey Tou Chiu, Fiona N.Y. Ching, Chun-Kit Law, Esther H.L. Tang, Clayton S.F. Ng, and Savio W.H. Wong.