How should I decide? The neural correlates of everyday moral reasoning.
The present fMRI study is the first that investigates everyday moral conflict situations in which a moral standard clashes with a personal desire. In such situations people have to decide between a morally guided and a hedonistic behaviour. Twelve healthy subjects were presented with verbal stories describing conflicts with either moral or neutral content. The moral stories described conflicts requiring a decision between a personal desire and a conflicting moral standard, whereas the neutral conflicts required a decision between two conflicting personal desires. When compared to neutral conflicts, moral conflicts elicited higher activity in a wide spread neural network including the medial frontal cortex, the temporal cortex and the temporo-parietal junction and the posterior cingulate cortex. Further analyses of the moral conflicts revealed that hedonistic decisions in contrast to morally guided decisions were associated with significantly higher rankings of uncertainty and unpleasant emotions and induced significant more activation in the amygdala/parahippocampal region. The present results generalise findings on the neuroscience of moral understanding by extending it to everyday moral decisions. Furthermore, the results show that the amydala region plays a central role in the processing of negative emotional consequences associated with immoral decisions.
Sommer
Monika
M
University Medical Center Regensburg, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany. monika.sommer@medbo.de
Rothmayr
Christoph
C
Döhnel
Katrin
K
Meinhardt
Jörg
J
Schwerdtner
Johannes
J
Sodian
Beate
B
Hajak
Göran
G
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
D010100:Oxygen