The Role of Prefrontal Cortex in a Moral Judgment Task Using Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy

Overview

Journal Brain Behav

Specialty Psychology

Date 2018 Sep 26

PMID 30253084

Citations 8

Authors

Hadis Dashtestani

Rachel Zaragoza

Riley Kermanian

Kristine M Knutson

Milton Halem

Aisling Casey

Nader Shahni Karamzadeh

Afrouz A Anderson

Albert Claude Boccara

Amir Gandjbakhche

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Understanding the neural basis of moral judgment (MJ) and human decision-making has been the subject of numerous studies because of their impact on daily life activities and social norms. Here, we aimed to investigate the neural process of MJ using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a noninvasive, portable, and affordable neuroimaging modality.

Methods: We examined prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation in 33 healthy participants engaging in MJ exercises. We hypothesized that participants presented with personal (emotionally salient) and impersonal (less emotional) dilemmas would exhibit different brain activation observable through fNIRS. We also investigated the effects of utilitarian and nonutilitarian responses to MJ scenarios on PFC activation. Utilitarian responses are those that favor the greatest good while nonutilitarian responses favor moral actions. Mixed effect models were applied to model the cerebral hemodynamic changes that occurred during MJ dilemmas.

Results And Conclusions: Our analysis found significant differences in PFC activation during personal versus impersonal dilemmas. Specifically, the left dorsolateral PFC was highly activated during impersonal MJ when a nonutilitarian decision was made. This is consistent with the majority of relevant fMRI studies, and demonstrates the feasibility of using fNIRS, with its portable and motion tolerant capacities, to investigate the neural basis of MJ dilemmas.

Citing Articles

Qiao X, Lu K, Yun Q, Hao N eNeuro. 2023; 10(9).

PMID: 37696664 PMC: 10512885. DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0127-23.2023.

Relationship between Moral Values for Driving Behavior and Brain Activity: An NIRS Study.

Kawabata K, Fujita K, Sato M, Hayashi K, Kobayashi Y Healthcare (Basel). 2022; 10(11).

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Structured sparse multiset canonical correlation analysis of simultaneous fNIRS and EEG provides new insights into the human action-observation network.

Dashtestani H, Miguel H, Condy E, Zeytinoglu S, Millerhagen J, Debnath R Sci Rep. 2022; 12(1):6878.

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Morality and management: an oxymoron? fNIRS and neuromanagement perspective explain us why things are not like this.

Balconi M, Fronda G Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2020; 20(6):1336-1348.

PMID: 33123863 PMC: 7716886. DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00841-1.

Global motion detection and censoring in high-density diffuse optical tomography.

Sherafati A, Snyder A, Eggebrecht A, Bergonzi K, Burns-Yocum T, Lugar H Hum Brain Mapp. 2020; 41(14):4093-4112.

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