title: Early detection of intentional harm in the human amygdala.
abstract: A decisive element of moral cognition is the detection of harm and its assessment as intentional or unintentional. Moral cognition engages brain networks supporting mentalizing, intentionality, empathic concern and evaluation. These networks rely on the amygdala as a critical hub, likely through frontotemporal connections indexing stimulus salience. We assessed inferences about perceived harm using a paradigm validated through functional magnetic resonance imaging, eye-tracking and electroencephalogram recordings. During the task, we measured local field potentials in three patients with depth electrodes (n = 115) placed in the amygdala and in several frontal, temporal, and parietal locations. Direct electrophysiological recordings demonstrate that intentional harm induces early activity in the amygdala (<200 ms), which--in turn--predicts intention attribution. The amygdala was the only site that systematically discriminated between critical conditions and predicted their classification of events as intentional. Moreover, connectivity analysis showed that intentional harm induced stronger frontotemporal information sharing at early stages. Results support the 'many roads' view of the amygdala and highlight its role in the rapid encoding of intention and salience--critical components of mentalizing and moral evaluation.
authors.affiliation: 1 Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2 UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience (UIFCoN), Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile 3 Instituto de Ingeniería Biomédica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hesse
authors.affiliation: 1 Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2 UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience (UIFCoN), Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile 4 National Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina aibanez@ineco.org.ar.
authors.forename: Ezequiel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mikulan
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Psychology, and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Decety
authors.affiliation: 6 Laboratory of Neuroscience, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina 7 Departamento de Física, FCEN, UBA and IFIBA, Conicet, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sigman
authors.affiliation: 8 Programa de Cirugía de Epilepsia, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: María del Carmen
authors.initials: Mdel C
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.affiliation: 8 Programa de Cirugía de Epilepsia, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: 8 Programa de Cirugía de Epilepsia, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ciraolo
authors.affiliation: 8 Programa de Cirugía de Epilepsia, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Esteban
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vaucheret
authors.affiliation: 1 Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2 UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience (UIFCoN), Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile 3 Instituto de Ingeniería Biomédica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Fabricio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baglivo
authors.affiliation: 2 UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience (UIFCoN), Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huepe
authors.affiliation: 9 Escuela de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.affiliation: 1 Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2 UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience (UIFCoN), Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile 4 National Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina 10 Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Australian Research Council (ARC), New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Facundo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Manes
authors.affiliation: 11 Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Tristan A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Bekinschtein
authors.affiliation: 1 Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2 UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience (UIFCoN), Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile 4 National Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina 10 Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Australian Research Council (ARC), New South Wales, Australia 12 Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia aibanez@ineco.org.ar.
authors.forename: Agustin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ibanez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: amygdala; intentional harm; intracranial recordings; moral cognition