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Related Experiment Video

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Decoding Natural Behavior from Neuroethological Embedding
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Published on: October 3, 2025

Decoding moral judgments from neural representations of intentions.

Jorie Koster-Hale1, Rebecca Saxe, James Dungan

  • 1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. jorie@mit.edu

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|March 13, 2013
PubMed
Summary

Neuroimaging reveals the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ) uniquely processes intent in moral judgments. This brain region

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Moral Psychology

Background:

  • Moral judgments often differentiate between intentional and accidental harms.
  • This distinction relies on mental state reasoning, particularly understanding intentions.
  • The right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ) is a key brain region implicated in mental state reasoning.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural patterns in the RTPJ associated with distinguishing intentional from accidental harms.
  • To examine individual differences in RTPJ activity and their correlation with moral judgments.
  • To compare RTPJ activity during moral judgments in neurotypical adults and adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to analyze brain activity in the RTPJ.
  • Presented participants with scenarios involving intentional and accidental harms.
  • Assessed individual differences in moral judgments and correlated them with neural patterns.

Main Results:

  • MVPA identified distinct spatial patterns of RTPJ activity for intentional versus accidental harms in neurotypical adults.
  • Individual differences in these RTPJ neural patterns predicted variations in participants' moral judgments.
  • This neural distinction for intent was absent in adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Conclusions:

  • The RTPJ exhibits specific neural representations for intent crucial for moral judgments.
  • MVPA can detect neural features of mental state representations, such as intent.
  • Findings highlight the neural basis of intent processing in moral cognition and its differences in autism spectrum disorder.