What is the study about?

During everyday dealings with other people, we automatically think about their behaviour and our own and this affects how we feel about ourselves and other people. For example imagine you said something to a friend which you realise may have hurt their feelings; you might well feel guilty or shameful afterwards and begin to wonder if you were a tactless or rude person. Nonetheless, as yet little is known about how the brain works these things out. However, it is important to find out because this kind of thinking may become very negative in people with a tendency to depression.

If we better understood how the brain processes the type of information that enables people to cooperate socially and reflect and have feelings about such social interactions, we think there is a good chance that we would learn more about the causes of depression. Our research could give us new ideas about how to treat depression.