Human Morality
The neural basis of human moral
cognition
Moll et al., (2005). The neural basis of moral
cognition. Nature Reviews/Neuroscience, 6,
799-809
Moral Cognitive Neuroscience
Moral Cognitive Neuroscience
Is an emerging field of research that focuses on the
neural basis of uniquely human forms of social
cognition and behavior
Researchers of this field aim to understand and explain
the cognitive and neural mechanism that underlie
moral behavior
Moral Cognitive Neuroscience
Defines Morality as the sets of customs and values that
are embraced by a cultural group to guide social
conduct
This view does not assume the existence of absolute
moral values
Moral Cognitive Neuroscience
Researchers in this field have developed innovative
paradigms for scientific exploration of unique forms of
human social behavior
Recent studies are fostering new interpretations with
regard to the neural bases of moral cognition
Functional imaging studies involved simple moral
judgments, moral dilemmas, moral emotions using
different tasks and stimulus presentation schemes
Cognitive Neuroscience
Functional imaging studies have revealed consistent
involvement of:
aPFC
aTL
STS
Limbic regions
Some Experimental
Procedures used for
investigation of the neural
basis of moral thinking
Moral Dilemma task
Iowa Gambling task
Theory of Mind Task
Studying Moral emotions with pictures
Moral Dilemma Task: Greene’s
Hierarchcial Processing view
Based on functional imaging studies, Green and
colleagues have focused their research on the role of
cognitive control in moral judgment
Moral judgment- a type of evaluative judgment that is based
on assessments of of the adequacy of one’s own and others’
behaviors according to socially shaped ideas of right and
wrong
Greene's hierarchical processing view:
Assumes that cognitive control processes override
emotional responses to produce UTILITARIAN
responses to moral dilemmas
Conflict Processing in Moral Judgment
Greene's hierarchical processing view:
Assumes that cognitive control processes override emotional
responses to produce UTILITARIAN responses to moral dilemmas
Utilitarianism- a moral philosophical theory according to which the
best decisions are those that lead to the higher overall degree of
happiness or the well being for the greatest number of people
Moral Dilemma: Should you kill an innocent person to save 5 people’s
lives?
Example answer: you should.
Emotional areas favor ‘personal’ moral judgments
Example: Thinking that it is inappropriate to kill the innocent person
Theory believes that there are mutually competitive roles of
cognition and emotion in moral judgment
Conflict Processing in Moral Judgment
Greene's hierarchical processing view:
Assumes that cognitive control processes override emotional responses to
produce UTILITARIAN responses to moral dilemmas
Cognitive Control Processes are afforded by the lateral PFC and anterior
cingulate cortex (ACC)
Emotional responses are attributed to the medial PFC, posterior
cingulate cortex (PCC) and superior temporal sulcus (STS)
Cognitive Areas:
Lateral PFC
ACC
Emotional
Response Areas:
Medial PFC
PCC
STS
Iowa Gambling Task
Used to investigate the Somatic Marker Hypothesis
created by Damasio and colleagues by simulating real
life decision making.
Argues that physiological affective reactions ordinarily
guide and simplify decision making
Proposes that a somatic marker mechanism guides our
behavior, particularly in decision making
Somatic Marker Hypothesis
Damasio and
colleagues
Observed that
patients with damage
to their
ventromedial PFC
can detect the
implications of a
social situation, but
cannot make the
appropriate decisions
in real life
Somatic Marker Hypothesis
Iowa Gambling Task
Used to simulate real life decision making
Previous Studies have revealed:
Normal individuals develop anticipatory galvanic skin
responses, the Somatic Marker, when contemplating a
risky choice
Patients with ventromedial PFC damage did not develop
this same response
Suggests that they are not able to mark those
implications with a signal that automatically
distinguishes advantageous from destructive actions
Sociopathy as a failure of ‘Theory of
Mind’
Our ability to explain and predict other people’s behavior by
attributing to them independent mental states
Lough et al assessment of JM:
47 y/o Male
Decline in work performance
Deterioration of social behavior
Bilateral atrophy of the OFC and Anterior temporal lobes,
including the amygdala
Normal IQ and performed fairly on standard executive tests
Performed poorly on:
TOM tasks
Sociopathy as a failure of ‘Theory of
Mind’
JM:
Bilateral atrophy
of the OFC and
Anterior
temporal lobes,
including the
amygdala
Sociopathy as a failure of ‘Theory of
Mind’
Lough et al assessment of JM
Proposed that the dissociation b/t the impairment in
TOM task and normal executive performance underlies
the personality changes observed in some cases of
frontotemporal dementia
Abnormal moral cognition qualities
Difficulties in attribution and experience of pride and
embarrassment
Also observed in autism
Use of Pictures to explore moral
emotions
Showed participants a
series of pictures:
Pictures that depicted
moral violation
aPFC
mOFC
STS
Brain Stem
Limbic structures
Scenes associated
with basic emotions
Brain stem
Limbic structures
Moral Sensitivity Hypothesis
Consistent with the hypothesis – a network involving the aPFC,
aOFC, STS and limbic regions represent social-emotional
events linked to ‘moral sensitivity’
An automatic tagging of ordinary social events with moral value
EFECs
Event-Feature-Emotion
complexes
EFECs
A new representation of neural architecture proposed
by the authors which is based on their view that:
Neural mechanisms of moral cognition are not
restricted to specific brain regions but the interaction of
brain regions
Relies on 3 main components:
Structured event knowledge
Social perceptual and functional features
Central motive and emotional states
1. Structured Event Knowledge
Humans integrate extensive contextual elements when assessing
the behavior of others and when appreciating their own actions in
a given situation.
Distinct PFC regions have been postulated to be involved in
representing event sequence knowledge
Thus, Structured Event Knowledge corresponds to context-dependent
representation of events and event sequences in the PFC
The importance of the PFC in structuring context-dependent
social and non-social knowledge into SECs is described in terms of
the SEC framework
Structured-Event Complex
Framework
Supports the claim that executive functions performed
by the PFC are based on stored event sequence
knowledge
SEC representations
LTMs of event sequences that guide the perception and
execution of goal oriented activities
Includes situational knowledge abstracted across
events(going to a concert) and temporal organization of
events (making reservations, dressing up, and so on)
Structured-Event Complex
Framework
Predicts that different subdivisions of the PFC store different
types of content or domain of event knowledge:
Ventromedial PFC- social and emotional SECs
Anterior PFC- novel or multi-tasking event sequences
More posterior PFC regions- over learned sequences
Structured Event Knowledge: Brain
Areas
Medial and more posterior
sectors of the PFC:
Store over-learned event
sequences, such as routine
tasks
DLPFC:
Where less predictable event
sequences are represented
Structured Event Knowledge: Brain
Areas
Anterior sectors of the PFC
Are more important for
storing long-term goals and
multi-stage event complexes,
such as those involved in
making plans and thinking
about the future
Ventromedial sectors of the
PFC
Involved in representing social
and emotional event
knowledge, which is essential
for the formation of attitudes
and social stereotypes
EFEC Framework Predictions
Lesions of the anterior PFC would lead to
selective impairments in moral evaluations
that rely on predicting the long-term
outcomes of one’s own actions
They predict these patients would be guided
more by short-term goals.
Because their knowledge of long-term plans
and goals, or their binding with
motivational relevance is impaired
Lesions of the DLPFC would lead to
behavioral impairments in unfamiliar
situations
Reliance on external guidance and stimuli
becomes an issue
Well established social behaviors and
attitudes is left intact
EFEC Framework Predictions
Lesions of the ventral sectors of the
PFC
Leads to severe social behavioral
changes
This is due to the disruption of
social-emotional contextual
knowledge
They predict that the earlier the
development of lesions the more
drastic the effects because it would
impair the learning of moral values
Lesions of the Ventromedial PFC
would impair adherence to well
established social norms and
attitudes
2) Social Perceptual and
Functional Features
STS
Anterior Temporal Lobe
Social Perceptual and Functional Features
When you skim a newspaper, gather with friends, or
attend a football game your brain deals with a massive
number of perceptual signs of social significance.
Our ability to manage this burden of information relies
on complex patterns of featural and semantic
knowledge
Social Perceptual and Functional Features :
STS
Making implicit or explicit
moral appraisals when engaged
in the social world requires the
ability to efficiently extract
social perceptual and functional
features from the environment
Social perceptual features are
extracted from, facial
expression, gaze, prosody, body
posture and gestures
The posterior STS is a key
region for storing these
representations
Social Perceptual and Functional Features: STS
In support of this view, morphological abnormalities of
the STS region have been implicated in the impaired
social decoding observed in autism
Difficulty experienced by individuals with autism in
attributing intentionality, which leads to reduced
experience of pride and embarrassment
Social perceptual and functional features
The importance of the anterior temporal
cortex for semantic feature knowledge is
underscored by semantic impairments in
semantic dementia.
Patients with anterior temporal lobe resection
show impairments in naming human actions,
which indicates that this region is involved in
representing functional knowledge relevant to
people.
The severe behavioral changes that are
associated with isolated anterior temporal
atrophy in semantic dementia and the finding of
semantic impairments and abnormal activity in
this brain region in psychopathic individuals
support this view .
EFEC Framework Predictions
Damage to the posterior STS:
Predicted to disrupt the ability to
recognize socially relevant
perceptual features of the face,
body posture and movements
Leads to inadequate social
behavior that depend on the
perception of these signals
Leaves intact previously
established social rules and
attitudes, and outcome
knowledge
Thus, the time in life in which
damage occurred is very important
EFEC Framework Predictions
Lesions of the anterior temporal
lobe are expected to disrupt the
knowledge of social concepts and
values that more more contextindependent
Honor or greed
Leaves intact context-dependent
knowledge of sequences of social
events
Ex. Going to a super market
Thus, they predict that loss of this
knowledge would impair implicit
and explicit evaluations of one’s
own and other’s social behavior
3. Central Motive and
Emotional states
Limbic and paralimbic structures
3. Central motive and emotional states
Limbic and
paralimbic regionsmonitor bodily
homeostasis and
underlie
elementary
emotional or
motivational
'states'.
How does this
relate morality?
Authors state that
morality would be
reduced to a
meaningless
concept if it were
stripped from its
motivational and
emotional aspects
Central motive and emotional states
The concept of central motive states is an influential
account of the basic mechanisms of motivation.
Together with other limbic/paralimbic and brainstem
structures, hypothalamic activity has a central role in
'undirected' emotionality
Including sexual arousal, social attachment, hunger,
aggression and extremes of pleasantness
Central motive and emotional states
Central motive states are different from Basic
Emotions
Basic emotions- a collection of emotions that are
shared by most mammals that can readily be recognized
from facial expressions, voice intonation, gestures and
body posture
such as fear and disgust.
Basic emotions emerge by temporal binding of context
representations (perceiving the feared object or
situation) and the central motive state itself
(undirected anxiety).
EFEC Framework Predictions
Dysfunction of the limbic or paralimbic regions is
predicted to cause an exaggeration or reduction of basic
motivational and emotional states
Thus, affecting moral behavior
Lesions of the hypothalamus, septal nuclei, basal
forebrain and neighboring structures are predicted to
produce gross distortions of the valence of moral values,
attitudes and moral emotions.
In line with the observation of unprovoked rage,
lack of empathy and abnormal sexual behaviors
following isolated damage to limbic and paralimbic
regions
EFEC Framework Predictions
Timing of when damage was caused also plays a role:
Lesions in adulthood:
Gross changes in motivational relevance of behaviors, in
spite of preserved knowledge of social rules
Early developmental disorders in these areas:
Abnormal social learning
Abnormal behaviors in these patients do not result
from impaired inhibitory mechanisms, but from a lack
of emotional empathy, or increased aggression or
sexual drive, for example.