Abstract
An emotion regulation role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in moral judgment.
Highlights
In contrast to the activation of amygdala, which demonstrated a negative correlation with the frequency of utilitarian judgment in integrative moral judgment (IMJ), the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activation was positively correlated with that frequency
The integrative judgment theory cannot accommodate the findings in vmPFC-damaged patients: If vmPFC only serves to integrate the emotional signal from amygdala and other regions, damage to the vmPFC would allow the aversive emotion to affect the moral judgment directly, leading to more deontological choices. This prediction contradicts previous findings that vmPFC damaged patients preferred the utilitarian option (Koenigs et al, 2007) and did not generate emotional responses when endorsing a utilitarian judgment (Moretto et al, 2010). This discrepancy could be resolved from an emotion regulation perspective of vmPFC, which proposes that vmPFC recursively appraises the affective meaning of moral events in making moral judgment
The emotion regulation view proposes that vmPFC plays a critical role in generating social emotion to an option according to the general moral principle; while the integrative judgment theory does not predict an affective meaning generation process or how vmPFC is involved in such a process
Summary
A commentary on Integrative moral judgment: dissociating the roles of the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex by Shenhav, A., and Greene, J. This prediction contradicts previous findings that vmPFC damaged patients preferred the utilitarian option (Koenigs et al, 2007) and did not generate emotional responses when endorsing a utilitarian judgment (Moretto et al, 2010).
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