Departments of Neurology.
Psychiatry, Behavioral Neurology Section, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado.
Cogn Behav Neurol. 2020 Dec;33(4):304-307. doi: 10.1097/WNN.0000000000000253.
Morality, the set of shared attitudes and practices that regulate individual behavior to facilitate cohesion and well-being, is a function of the brain, yet its localization is uncertain. Neuroscientific study of morality has been conducted by examining departures from moral conduct after neurologic insult and by functional neuroimaging of moral decision-making in cognitively intact individuals. These investigations have yielded conflicting results: Acquired sociopathy, a syndromic surrogate for acquired immorality, has been reported predominantly after right frontotemporal lesions, whereas functional neuroimaging during moral decision-making has demonstrated bilateral activation. Although morality is bilaterally represented, the right hemisphere is clinically more critical in light of focal lesion data suggesting that moral behavior is subserved by a network of right frontotemporal structures and their subcortical connections. Evolution may have endowed the brain with bilaterally represented but unilaterally right-dominant morality. The unilateral dominance of morality permits concentration of an essential social cognitive function to support the perceptual and executive operations of moral behavior within a single hemisphere; the bilateral representation of morality allows activation of reserve tissue in the contralateral hemisphere in the event of an acquired hemispheric injury. The observed preponderance of right hemisphere lesions in individuals with acquired immorality offers a plausible hypothesis that can be tested in clinical settings. Advances in the neuroscience of morality promise to yield potentially transformative clinical and societal benefits. A deeper understanding of morality would help clinicians address disordered conduct after acquired neurologic insults and guide society in bolstering public health efforts to prevent brain disease.
道德是一套共同的态度和行为规范，调节个体行为以促进凝聚力和幸福感，是大脑的功能，但它的定位不确定。神经科学对道德的研究是通过检查神经损伤后道德行为的偏离以及认知完整个体的道德决策的功能神经影像学来进行的。这些研究产生了相互矛盾的结果：后天性精神病，后天性不道德的综合征替代物，主要报告发生在右额颞叶损伤后，而道德决策期间的功能神经影像学显示双侧激活。尽管道德是双侧表达的，但鉴于局灶性病变数据表明，道德行为由右额颞叶结构及其皮质下连接的网络所支持，因此右侧半球在临床上更为关键。进化可能使大脑具有双侧表达但单侧右侧优势的道德。道德的单侧优势允许集中进行基本的社会认知功能，以在单个半球内支持道德行为的感知和执行操作；道德的双侧表达允许在发生获得性半球损伤时激活对侧半球的储备组织。在患有后天性不道德的个体中观察到的右侧半球病变居多，提供了一个合理的假设，可以在临床环境中进行测试。道德神经科学的进步有望带来潜在的变革性的临床和社会利益。对道德的更深入理解将帮助临床医生解决后天性神经损伤后的行为障碍，并指导社会加强公共卫生努力，预防脑部疾病。
