{"id":1751,"date":"2016-10-27T06:04:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T06:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/101psych.com\/?p=1751"},"modified":"2019-08-19T19:16:03","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T10:16:03","slug":"key-study-moral-judgement-and-the-prefrontal-cortex-ciaramelli-et-al","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2016\/10\/27\/key-study-moral-judgement-and-the-prefrontal-cortex-ciaramelli-et-al\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Study: Moral judgement and the prefrontal cortex (Ciaramelli, et al)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This study helps to explain\u00a0how\u00a0<\/em>dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex might make people more susceptible to violent and\/or impulsive behaviours.<\/p>\n

Similar to the VHIS<\/a>, Ciaramelli et al investigated the differences between moral judgements in people with damage to their prefrontal cortex and healthy controls. Their study cites existing research that suggests people with damage to their PFC have \u201chigh levels of aggressiveness, lack of concern for social and moral rules and irresponsibility.\u201d Because of the PFCs role in deliberating over moral dilemmas and making decisions with serious and emotional consequences, especially those of a social nature (i.e. they will affect other people), the researchers hypothesized that the brain damaged patients would be more likely to approve moral violations in personal moral dilemmas. For instance, in the trolley\/footbridge\u00a0example they would be more likely to push the person off the footbridge to save the five people than the controls.<\/p>\n

\"prefrontal1\"

Here you can see that within the frontal lobe is the prefrontal cortex and within the cortex there are further sub-regions, like the ventrolateral PFC and the orbitofrontal PFC.<\/p><\/div>\n

Because the PFC also helps to regulate our impulsivity and helps us to make long-term decisions and plans, it was also expected that the patients would have quicker response times.<\/p>\n

They did not anticipate a difference in the non-moral dilemmas because these do not require the same level of cognitive processing as the moral dilemmas.<\/p>\n

The participants were 7 brain-damaged patients who had damage in a specific area of their PFC (the ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Their brain damage occurred as a result of having an aneurysm. The patients had a mean age of 55 and 10 years of education \u2013 the controls were matched for these criteria (mean age 57 years and 12 years of education).<\/p>\n

The participants were shown 45 dilemmas \u2013 30 moral (15 personal and 15 impersonal) and 15 non-moral dilemmas. They did not take the test in the fMRI because MRIs had already been used to identify the location of the damage to their brains. The DV in this experiment was their response to the different scenarios and their time taken.<\/p>\n

The results of the healthy controls were similar to previous studies:<\/p>\n