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The neural basis of human moral cognition

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 6, pages 799–809 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Moral cognitive neuroscience is an emerging field of research that focuses on the neural basis of uniquely human forms of social cognition and behaviour. Recent functional imaging and clinical evidence indicates that a remarkably consistent network of brain regions is involved in moral cognition. These findings are fostering new interpretations of social behavioural impairments in patients with brain dysfunction, and require new approaches to enable us to understand the complex links between individuals and society. Here, we propose a cognitive neuroscience view of how cultural and context-dependent knowledge, semantic social knowledge and motivational states can be integrated to explain complex aspects of human moral cognition.

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Figure 1: Brain regions implicated in moral cognition and behaviour in functional imaging and patient studies.
Figure 2: Functional imaging studies of moral cognition.
Figure 3: The event–feature–emotion complex framework.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by the LABS-D'Or Hospital Network and by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Cognitive Neuroscience Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Building 10; Room 5C205; MSC 1440, NIHJorge Moll, Roland Zahn, Frank Krueger and Jordan Grafman are at The Cognitive Neuroscience Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Building 10; Room 5C205; MSC 1440, NIH,

    Jorge Moll, Roland Zahn, Frank Krueger & Jordan Grafman

  2. Room 5C205, Room 5C205, Bethesda, 20892-1440, Maryland, USA

    Jorge Moll, Roland Zahn, Frank Krueger & Jordan Grafman

  3. the Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit, LABS-D'Or Hospital Network, R. Pinheiro Guimaraes 22, 3rd floor, Rio de Janeiro, 22281-080, Brazil

    Ricardo de Oliveira-Souza

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Correspondence to Jordan Grafman.

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Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience Unit, LABS-D'Or Hospital Network

Glossary

ATTITUDES

Context-dependent, emotionally laden social concepts and intuitions.

BASIC EMOTIONS

A collection of emotions that are shared by most mammals (for example, fear, sadness, disgust, anger, happiness and surprise) that can readily be recognized from facial expressions (mimicry), gaze direction, voice intonation, gestures and body postures.

BINDING

Temporal synchronization of different neuronal assemblies, which correspond to stored neural representations, or codes.

EXTINCTION

The mechanism by which a previously learned automatic behavioural response is extinguished.

IOWA GAMBLING TASK

A card-sorting task designed to probe implicit mechanisms that govern individual choices in reward and punishment contexts.

MORAL EMOTIONS

Emotions that are linked to the interest or welfare of other people or society as a whole.

MORAL JUDGEMENT

A type of evaluative judgement that is based on assessments of the adequacy of one's own and others' behaviours according to socially shaped ideas of right and wrong.

MORAL REASONING

The thinking mechanism through which moral judgements are attained.

MORAL VALUES

Culturally shaped concepts and attitudes that code for personal and societal preferences and standards.

NEUROECONOMICS

An interdisciplinary field that aims to understand cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms that underlie choice behaviour and utility estimation.

PERCEPTUAL GESTALT

Simultaneous perception of sensory stimuli in one or more sensory modalities, experienced as a unified, integrated pattern.

PSYCHOPATHY

A severe form of antisocial personality disorder, characterized by callousness and lack of empathy.

RESPONSE REVERSAL

A change in a learned behavioural response following a change in reinforcement contingencies.

SECOND-ORDER FALSE BELIEF TASKS

Sophisticated mind-reading tasks that require the evaluation of what another person believes that a third person is thinking.

THEORY OF MIND

A specific cognitive ability that allows one to understand other people as intentional, perceptive and emotional agents, or to interpret their minds in terms of intentional, perceptual or feeling states.

UTILITARIANISM

A moral philosophical theory according to which the best decisions are those that lead to the higher overall degree of happiness or well-being for the greatest number of people.

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Moll, J., Zahn, R., de Oliveira-Souza, R. et al. The neural basis of human moral cognition. Nat Rev Neurosci 6, 799–809 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1768

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