title: Moral decision-making in university students with self-reported mild head injury.
abstract: Converging evidence shows that the prefrontal cortex is involved in moral decision-making. Individuals who have suffered injury to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex are more willing to endorse personal moral transgressions (e.g., make their decisions faster, and have attenuated sympathetic responses to those violations). We examined whether university students who have experienced a mild head injury (MHI), and are asymptomatic, present with a similar pattern of responding to moral dilemmas. Students reporting a history of MHI responded more quickly when making moral choices and exhibited less reticence toward the endorsement of personal moral transgressions than their non-MHI counterparts. Our results are consistent with studies involving persons with more serious, and evident, neuronal injury, and emphasize the important relationship between head injury and moral decision-making.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology Cognitive Research Lab , Brock University , St. Catharines , ON , Canada.
authors.forename: Stefon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Noordt
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology Cognitive Research Lab , Brock University , St. Catharines , ON , Canada.
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chiappetta
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology and Centre for Neuroscience, Neuropsychology Cognitive Research Lab , Brock University , St. Catharines , ON , Canada.
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Good
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality; D011340:Problem Solving; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Mild head injury; emotion; moral dilemmas; university students; ventromedial prefrontal cortex