Abstract
Neural underpinnings of morality are not yet well understood. Researchers in moral neuroscience have tried to find specific structures and processes that shed light on how morality works. Here, we review the main brain areas that have been associated with morality at both structural and functional levels and speculate about how it can be studied. Orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortices are implicated in emotionally-driven moral decisions, while dorsolateral prefrontal cortex appears to moderate its response. These competing processes may be mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex. Parietal and temporal structures play important roles in the attribution of others' beliefs and intentions. The insular cortex is engaged during empathic processes. Other regions seem to play a more complementary role in morality. Morality is supported not by a single brain circuitry or structure, but by several circuits overlapping with other complex processes. The identification of the core features of morality and moral-related processes is needed. Neuroscience can provide meaningful insights in order to delineate the boundaries of morality in conjunction with moral psychology.
Highlights
Can immoral behavior sometimes turn out to be moral? What mechanisms underlie morality? The above quotation is taken from a scene in the American TV series “Dexter.” Dexter is a respected employee at the Miami Metro Police Department, and a family man
Morality is a set of complex emotional and cognitive processes that is reflected across many brain domains
Some of them are recurrently found to be indispensable in order to emit a moral judgment, but none of them is uniquely related to morality
Summary
How does morality work in the brain? A functional and structural perspective of moral behavior. We review the main brain areas that have been associated with morality at both structural and functional levels and speculate about how it can be studied. Researchers in moral neuroscience have tried to find domain-specific structures and processes that shed light on what morality is and where it is in the brain, if it is there at all. We briefly review the main brain areas that have recently been associated with morality at both structural and functional levels and discuss some of the implications of our review. Morality has traditionally been regarded as a code of values guiding the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of our lives (Rand, 1964) It has been operationalized as a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all rational persons (Gert, 2012). The “cognitive control and conflict theory” (Greene et al, 2004) postulates that responses
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