title: Individual differences in moral judgment competence influence neural correlates of socio-normative judgments.
abstract: To investigate how individual differences in moral judgment competence are reflected in the human brain, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, while 23 participants made either socio-normative or grammatical judgments. Participants with lower moral judgment competence recruited the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the left posterior superior temporal sulcus more than participants with greater competence in this domain when identifying social norm violations. Moreover, moral judgment competence scores were inversely correlated with activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during socio-normative relative to grammatical judgments. Greater activity in right DLPFC in participants with lower moral judgment competence indicates increased recruitment of rule-based knowledge and its controlled application during socio-normative judgments. These data support current models of the neurocognition of morality according to which both emotional and cognitive components play an important role.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Research Center, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Campus Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany. kristin.prehn@charite.de
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Prehn
authors.forename: Isabell
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wartenburger
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mériau
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheibe
authors.forename: Oliver R
authors.initials: OR
authors.lastname: Goodenough
authors.forename: Arno
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Villringer
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van der Meer
authors.forename: Hauke R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Heekeren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D009014:Morals; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D012016:Reference Values; D012925:Social Conformity; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen