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Regional and Temporal Differences in Brain Activity With Morally Good or Bad Judgments in Men: A
Hirotoshi Hiraishi1,2, Takashi Ikeda2,3, Daisuke N Saito2,4
1Department of Biofunctional Imaging, Preeminent Medical Photonics Education and Research Center, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
|April 29, 2021
Summary
This study reveals distinct brain activity patterns for morally good and bad judgments using magnetoencephalography. Morally bad judgments involve stronger left hemisphere connectivity, suggesting its crucial role in processing negative moral information.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Moral Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Existing neuroimaging research on morality predominantly examines negative moral situations.
- Limited studies explore the neural correlates of moral judgments across a continuum of good and bad actions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate brain activation and functional connectivity differences during morally good judgments (MGJs) and morally bad judgments (MBJs).
- To leverage magnetoencephalography (MEG) for analyzing time-dependent brain activities in moral processing.
Main Methods:
- Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was employed to record brain activity in male participants.
- Time-frequency analysis and functional connectivity assessments were conducted for both MGJs and MBJs.
Main Results:
- While overall patterns were similar, right-hemisphere emotion and "theory of mind" areas showed greater activation in MGJs.
- MBJs exhibited stronger connectivity in the left temporal region between emotion and reward/punishment areas.
- Early moral information processing in MBJs showed left-hemisphere dominance and distinct theta wave patterns compared to MGJs.
Conclusions:
- The left hemisphere's local temporal region plays a more significant role in executing MBJs during early moral valence processing.
- MBJs may rely on more robust, shorter intra-hemispheric neuronal connections for punctual execution.
