Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1, INM-2), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany.
PLoS One. 2011 Apr 1;6(4):e18451. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018451.
Persons have different value preferences. Neuroimaging studies where value-based decisions in actual conflict situations were investigated suggest an important role of prefrontal and cingulate brain regions. General preferences, however, reflect a superordinate moral concept independent of actual situations as proposed in psychological and socioeconomic research. Here, the specific brain response would be influenced by abstract value systems and moral concepts. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such responses are largely unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a forced-choice paradigm on word pairs representing abstract values, we show that the brain handles such decisions depending on the person's superordinate moral concept. Persons with a predominant collectivistic (altruistic) value system applied a "balancing and weighing" strategy, recruiting brain regions of rostral inferior and intraparietal, and midcingulate and frontal cortex. Conversely, subjects with mainly individualistic (egocentric) value preferences applied a "fight-and-flight" strategy by recruiting the left amygdala. Finally, if subjects experience a value conflict when rejecting an alternative congruent to their own predominant value preference, comparable brain regions are activated as found in actual moral dilemma situations, i.e., midcingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Our results demonstrate that superordinate moral concepts influence the strategy and the neural mechanisms in decision processes, independent of actual situations, showing that decisions are based on general neural principles. These findings provide a novel perspective to future sociological and economic research as well as to the analysis of social relations by focusing on abstract value systems as triggers of specific brain responses.
人们具有不同的价值偏好。在涉及实际冲突情境下基于价值的决策的神经影像学研究表明，前额叶和扣带回脑区发挥了重要作用。然而，正如心理学和社会经济学研究所提出的，一般偏好反映了一种超越具体情境的上位道德概念。在这种情况下，特定的大脑反应会受到抽象价值系统和道德概念的影响。这些反应背后的神经生物学机制在很大程度上尚不清楚。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI），采用代表抽象价值的单词对进行强制选择范式，研究表明，大脑会根据个人的上位道德概念来处理此类决策。具有占主导地位的集体主义（利他主义）价值体系的人会采用“平衡和权衡”策略，激活额下回和顶内回、中扣带回和额前皮质等脑区。相反，主要具有个人主义（自我中心）价值偏好的受试者会采用“战斗或逃跑”策略，激活左侧杏仁核。最后，如果受试者在拒绝与其自身占主导地位的价值偏好一致的替代方案时遇到价值冲突，则会激活与实际道德困境情境中相同的脑区，即中扣带回和背外侧前额叶皮质。我们的研究结果表明，上位道德概念会影响决策过程中的策略和神经机制，而不受具体情境的影响，这表明决策是基于一般的神经原则。这些发现为未来的社会学和经济学研究以及通过关注作为特定大脑反应触发因素的抽象价值系统来分析社会关系提供了一个新的视角。
