Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Méditerranée, CNRS UMR 6193 & Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Mar;7(3):282-8. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr008. Epub 2011 Apr 22.
Humans daily face social situations involving conflicts between competing moral decision. Despite a substantial amount of studies published over the past 10 years, the respective role of emotions and reason, their possible interaction, and their behavioural expression during moral evaluation remains an unresolved issue. A dualistic approach to moral evaluation proposes that the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFc) controls emotional impulses. However, recent findings raise the possibility that the right DLPFc processes emotional information during moral decision making. We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to transiently disrupt rDLPFc activity before measuring decision making in the context of moral dilemmas. Results reveal an increase of the probability of utilitarian responses during objective evaluation of moral dilemmas in the rTMS group (compared to a SHAM one). This suggests that the right DLPFc function not only participates to a rational cognitive control process, but also integrates emotions generated by contextual information appraisal, which are decisive for response selection in moral judgements.
人类每天都会面临涉及竞争道德决策的社会情境。尽管在过去的 10 年中发表了大量的研究，但情感和理性的各自作用、它们的可能相互作用以及它们在道德评价过程中的行为表现仍然是一个未解决的问题。道德评价的二元论方法提出，右侧背外侧前额叶皮层（rDLPFc）控制情绪冲动。然而，最近的发现提出了一种可能性，即右侧 DLPFc 在道德决策过程中处理情绪信息。我们使用重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）在测量道德困境背景下的决策之前，暂时干扰 rDLPFc 活动。结果显示，在 rTMS 组（与 SHAM 组相比）中，功利主义反应的概率在客观评估道德困境时增加。这表明右侧 DLPFc 的功能不仅参与了理性认知控制过程，而且还整合了由情境信息评估产生的情绪，这对于道德判断中的反应选择是决定性的。
