title: The neural basis of dishonest decisions that serve to harm or help the target.
abstract: We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to elucidate the neurocognitive mechanisms of harmful and helpful dishonest decisions. During scanning, the subjects read scenarios concerning events that could occur in real-life situations and were asked to decide whether to tell a lie as though they were experiencing those events. Half of the scenarios consisted of harmful stories in which the dishonest decisions could be regarded as bad lies, and the other half consisted of helpful stories in which the dishonest decisions could be regarded as good lies. In contrast to the control decision-making task, we found that the decision-making tasks that involved honesty or dishonesty recruited a network of brain regions that included the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In the harmful stories, the right temporoparietal junction and the right medial frontal cortex were activated when the subjects made dishonest decisions compared with honest decisions. No region discriminated between the honest and dishonest decisions made in the helpful stories. These preliminary findings suggest that the neural basis of dishonest decisions is modulated by whether the lying serves to harm or help the target.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan. Electronic address: abe.nobuhito.7s@kyoto-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Nobuhito
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshikatsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayahito
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuta
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koseki
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryusaku
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Shunji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mugikura
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Shoki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Etsuro
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D008192:Deception; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Deception; Dishonesty; Prefrontal cortex; Temporoparietal junction; fMRI