title: Behavioral and autonomic reactivity to moral dilemmas in frontotemporal dementia versus Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: The personal/impersonal distinction of moral decision-making postulates intuitive emotional responses from medial frontal activity and rational evaluation from lateral frontal activity. This model can be analyzed in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a disorder characterized by impaired emotional intuitions, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) involvement, and relative sparing of lateral frontal regions. Moral dilemmas were presented to 10 bvFTD, 11 Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 9 healthy control (HC) participants while recording skin conductance responses, a measure of emotional arousal. We evaluated their personal versus impersonal conflict, subjective discomfort, and adherence to social norms. Replicating prior work, bvFTD participants were more willing to harm in the personal, but not the impersonal, dilemma compared to AD and HC groups. BvFTD participants had lower arousal and less of an increase in conflict on the personal versus the impersonal dilemma, in contrast to increased arousal and conflict for the AD and HC groups. Furthermore, bvFTD participants verbalized less discomfort, a correlate of low adherence to social norms. These findings support impaired emotional reactions to moral dilemmas in bvFTD and vmPFC lesions and the personal/impersonal model. It suggests a reversion to utilitarian-like considerations when emotional intuition is impaired in the brain.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|b Section of Neurology , V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Center , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Sylvia S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , Michigan State University , East Lansing , MI , USA.
authors.forename: Carlos David
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Navarrete
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Sean E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Perfecto
authors.affiliation: b Section of Neurology , V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Center , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|b Section of Neurology , V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Center , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Elvira E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Jimenez
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|b Section of Neurology , V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Center , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|d Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Mario F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Mendez
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011601:Psychophysics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Morality; dementia; frontotemporal dementia; moral dilemmas; social neuroscience; utilitarianism