NEURAL COMPARISON ACROSS GRATITUDE, AUTHENTIC AND HUBRISTIC PRIDE

This study investigated neural activation differences during participants’ experience of three emotions: hubristic pride, authentic pride, and gratitude. Images, in combined with textual information, were used to induce participants’ (N = 30, M_age = 22.6, SD = 2.8; 43.3% male) hubristic pride, authentic pride, and gratitude, and functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) were acquired. Data preprocessing and whole-brain analyses were conducted using SPM12 to compare neural activation across the three emotional states. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed significant differences in activation within the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), fusiform gyrus (FFG), and precuneus (PC) (cluster level FDR < .05) among the three emotions. Pairwise comparisons showed that, compared to both authentic and hubristic pride, gratitude elicited significantly stronger activation in the bilateral MTG, the FFG (only right side for hubristic pride), and the left PC, regions associated with mentalizing, social perception processing, and self-referential processing. Additionally, gratitude (vs. hubristic pride) also showed increased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the left parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), which was associated with self-reflection and episodic memory retrieval, respectively. However, no significant differences in neural activation were observed between authentic and hubristic pride at the FDR < .05 threshold. These findings suggest that gratitude involving more intensive social information processing and self-referential integration. This distinction may stem from the cognitive requirement of gratitude to interpret others' intentions and integrate the self-other relationship.
Table 1. Brain regions that show activation during emotions contrasts at FDR < .05