Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy, and Centro Studi e Ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2007 Jun;2(2):84-92. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsm001.
Recent fMRI evidence has detected increased medial prefrontal activation during contemplation of personal moral dilemmas compared to impersonal ones, which suggests that this cortical region plays a role in personal moral judgment. However, functional imaging results cannot definitively establish that a brain area is necessary for a particular cognitive process. This requires evidence from lesion techniques, such as studies of human patients with focal brain damage. Here, we tested 7 patients with lesions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and 12 healthy individuals in personal moral dilemmas, impersonal moral dilemmas and non-moral dilemmas. Compared to normal controls, patients were more willing to judge personal moral violations as acceptable behaviors in personal moral dilemmas, and they did so more quickly. In contrast, their performance in impersonal and non-moral dilemmas was comparable to that of controls. These results indicate that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is necessary to oppose personal moral violations, possibly by mediating anticipatory, self-focused, emotional reactions that may exert strong influence on moral choice and behavior.
最近的 fMRI 证据表明，在思考个人道德困境时，内侧前额叶的活动会增加，而在思考非个人道德困境时则不会，这表明这个皮质区域在个人道德判断中发挥作用。然而，功能成像结果并不能明确确定大脑区域对于特定认知过程是必需的。这需要来自损伤技术的证据，例如对有局部脑损伤的人类患者的研究。在这里，我们测试了 7 名腹内侧前额叶损伤的患者和 12 名健康个体在个人道德困境、非个人道德困境和非道德困境中的表现。与正常对照组相比，患者在个人道德困境中更愿意将个人道德违规判断为可接受的行为，并且他们的判断速度更快。相比之下，他们在非个人和非道德困境中的表现与对照组相当。这些结果表明，腹内侧前额叶皮层对于反对个人道德违规是必要的，可能是通过介导预期的、自我关注的、情绪反应，这些反应可能对道德选择和行为产生强烈影响。
