BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhuanet)-- Scientists may have
pinpointed the area in the brain where morality and emotions clash in dicey
situations. The area is the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), according to
a new study in the journal Nature released this week.
Conducted by researchers at the
University of Southern California, Harvard University, Caltech and the
University of Iowa, the study shows that emotion plays an important role in
scenarios that pose a moral dilemma.
"If certain emotions are blocked, we make decisions
that -- right or wrong -- seem unnaturally cold," they wrote.
Michael Koenigs of the National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and colleagues studied six people who
suffered VMPC damage as adults. For comparison, they also looked at 12
healthy adults with no brain damage and 12 adults with brain damage that didn't
affect the VMPC or other emotion-related areas.
All subjects were asked 50 questions involving
moral dilemmas. Each question required a "yes" or "no" response, and the
questions varied from easy nonmoral to very agonizing moral dilemmas (like
throwing the person out of the lifeboat).
The subjects with VMPC damage stood out in their
stated willingness to harm an individual -- a prospect that usually generates
strong aversion.
"Because of their brain damage, they have abnormal
social emotions in real life. They lack empathy and compassion," said Ralph
Adolphs, Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Caltech. "In those
circumstances most people without this specific brain damage will be torn. But
these particular subjects seem to lack that conflict."
The researchers aren't calling the VMPC-damaged
participants cold or immoral. But they say the findings support the theory that
the VMPC is involved in making personal, emotional, intense moral decisions.
(Agencies)
Print
