The role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in moral cognition: A value-centric hypothesis

References

• Anderson, S. W., Barrash, J., Bechara, A., & Tranel, D. (2006). Impairments of emotion and real-world complex behavior following childhood- or adult-onset damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 12(2), 224–235. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617706060346
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Anderson, S. W., Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. R. (1999). Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex. Nature neuroscience, 2(11), 1032–1037. https://doi.org/10.1038/14833
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bechara, A., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. R. (2000). Emotion, decision making and the orbitofrontal cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 10(3), 295–307. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/10.3.295
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bechara, A., Damasio, A. R., Damasio, H., & Anderson, S. W. (1994). Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition, 50(1–3), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(94)90018-3
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Blair, J. (2015). The Neurobiology of Morality. Montreal Neuroethics Conference for Young Researchers, Montreal, QC.
   Google Scholar
• Blair, R. J., & Cipolotti, L. (2000). Impaired social response reversal: A case of ‘acquired sociopathy’. Brain, 123(6), 1122–1141. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/123.6.1122
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Camille, N., Griffiths, C. A., Vo, K., Fellows, L. K., & Kable, J. W. (2011). Ventromedial frontal lobe damage disrupts value maximization in humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(20), 7527–7532. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6527-10.2011
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Camille, N., Tsuchida, A., & Fellows, L. K. (2011). Double dissociation of stimulus-value and action-value learning in humans with orbitofrontal or anterior cingulate cortex damage. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(42), 15048–15052. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3164-11.2011
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ciaramelli, E., Braghittoni, D., & diPellegrino, G. (2012). It is the outcome that counts! Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex disrupts the integration of outcome and belief information for moral judgment. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 18(6), 962–971. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617712000690
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ciaramelli, E., Muccioli, M., Ladavas, E., & diPellegrino, G. (2007). Selective deficit in personal moral judgment following damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2(2), 84–92. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsm001
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ciaramelli, E., Sperotto, R. G., Mattioli, F., & diPellegrino, G. (2013). Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex reduces interpersonal disgust. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 8(2), 171–180. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss087
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Cushman, F., Young, L., & Greene, J. (2010). Our multi-system moral psychology: Towards a consensus view. In J. Doris (Ed.), The Moral Psychology Handbook (pp. 47–71). Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. Penguin.
   Google Scholar
• Damasio, A. R., Tranel, D., & Damasio, H. (1990). Individuals with sociopathic behavior caused by frontal damage fail to respond autonomically to social stimuli. Behavioural Brain Research, 41(2), 81–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-4328(90)90144-4
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Decety, J., & Cacioppo, S. (2012). The speed of morality: A high-density electrical neuroimaging study. Journal of Neurophysiology, 108(11), 3068–3072. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00473.2012
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Decety, J., Michalska, K. J., & Kinzler, K. D. (2012). The contribution of emotion and cognition to moral sensitivity: A neurodevelopmental study. Cerebral Cortex, 22(1), 209–220. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhr111
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Dwyer, S. (2009). Moral dumbfounding and the linguistic analogy: Methodological implications for the study of moral judgment. Mind & Language, 24(3), 274–296. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0017.2009.01363.x
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Escobar, M. J., Huepe, D., Decety, J., Sedeno, L., Messow, M. K., Baez, S., Rivera-Rei, A., Canales-Johnson, A., Morales, J. P., Gomez, D. M., Schroeder, J., Manes, F., Lopez, V., & Ibanez, A. (2014). Brain signatures of moral sensitivity in adolescents with early social deprivation. Scientific Reports, 4(1), 5354. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep05354
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Fellows, L. K. (2006). Deciding how to decide: Ventromedial frontal lobe damage affects information acquisition in multi-attribute decision making. Brain, 129(4), 944–952. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awl017
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fellows, L. K. (2007). The role of orbitofrontal cortex in decision making: A component process account. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1121(1), 421–430. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1401.023
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Fellows, L. K. (2011). The Neurology of Value. In J. A. Gottfried (Ed.), Neurobiology of Sensation and Reward (pp. 351–368). CRC Press.
   Google Scholar
• Fellows, L. K., & Farah, M. J. (2003). Ventromedial frontal cortex mediates affective shifting in humans: Evidence from a reversal learning paradigm. Brain, 126(8), 1830–1837. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awg180
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Fellows, L. K., & Farah, M. J. (2005). Different underlying impairments in decision-making following ventromedial and dorsolateral frontal lobe damage in humans. Cerebral Cortex, 15(1), 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhh108
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Gigerenzer, G., & Gaissmaier, W. (2011). Heuristic decision making. Annual Review of Psychology, 62(1), 451–482. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120709-145346
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Grabenhorst, F., & Rolls, E. T. (2011). Value, pleasure and choice in the ventral prefrontal cortex. Trends in cognitive sciences, 15(2), 56–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.12.004
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Greene, J. D. (2007). Why are VMPFC patients more utilitarian? A dual-process theory of moral judgment explains. Trends in cognitive sciences, 11(8), 322–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2007.06.004
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Greene, J., & Haidt, J. (2002). How (and where) does moral judgment work? Trends in cognitive sciences, 6(12), 517–523. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(02)02011-9
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Greene, J. D., Morelli, S. A., Lowenberg, K., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2008). Cognitive load selectively interferes with utilitarian moral judgment. Cognition, 107(3), 1144–1154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.11.004
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Greene, J. D., Nystrom, L. E., Engell, A. D., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2004). The neural bases of cognitive conflict and control in moral judgment. Neuron, 44(2), 389–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2004.09.027
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Greene, J. D., Sommerville, R. B., Nystrom, L. E., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293(5537), 2105–2108. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1062872
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.108.4.814
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Harenski, C. L., & Hamann, S. (2006). Neural correlates of regulating negative emotions related to moral violations. NeuroImage, 30(1), 313–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.09.034
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Henri-Bhargava, A., Simioni, A., & Fellows, L. K. (2012). Ventromedial frontal lobe damage disrupts the accuracy, but not the speed, of value-based preference judgments. Neuropsychologia, 50(7), 1536–1542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.03.006
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Huebner, B. (2015). Do emotions play a constitutive role in moral cognition? Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy, 34(2), 427–440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-013-9223-6
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Huebner, B., Dwyer, S., & Hauser, M. (2009). The role of emotion in moral psychology. Trends in cognitive sciences, 13(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.09.006
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hu, C., & Jiang, X. (2014). An emotion regulation role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in moral judgment. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 873. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00873
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hume, D. (1978). Treatise of human nature. (2nd ed., L. A. Selby-Bigge, Ed.). Oxford University Press. Original work published 1739.
   Google Scholar
• Kahane, G. (2012). On the wrong track: Process and content in moral psychology. Mind & Language, 27(5), 519–545. https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12001
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kahane, G. (2015). Sidetracked by trolleys: Why sacrificial moral dilemmas tell us little (or nothing) about utilitarian judgment. Social neuroscience, 10(5), 551–560. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2015.1023400
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kahane, G., Everett, J. A., Earp, B. D., Farias, M., & Savulescu, J. (2015, Jan). ‘Utilitarian’ judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good. Cognition, 134, 193–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.10.005
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kahane, G., & Shackel, N. (2008). Do abnormal responses show utilitarian bias? Nature, 452(7185), E5–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06785
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kahane, G., & Shackel, N. (2010). Methodological issues in the neuroscience of moral judgement. Mind & Language, 25(5), 561–582. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01401.x
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kahane, G., Wiech, K., Shackel, N., Farias, M., Savulescu, J., & Tracey, I. (2012). The neural basis of intuitive and counterintuitive moral judgment. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 7(4), 393–402. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsr005
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kanske, P., Heissler, J., Schonfelder, S., Bongers, A., & Wessa, M. (2011). How to regulate emotion? Neural networks for reappraisal and distraction. Cerebral Cortex, 21(6), 1379–1388. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhq216
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kant, I. (1993). Grounding for the metaphysics of morals (J. W. Ellington, Ed.). Hackett Publishing. (Original work published 1785).
   Google Scholar
• Koenigs, M., Kruepke, M., & Newman, J. P. (2010). Economic decision-making in psychopathy: A comparison with ventromedial prefrontal lesion patients. Neuropsychologia, 48(7), 2198–2204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.04.012
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Koenigs, M., & Tranel, D. (2007). Irrational economic decision-making after ventromedial prefrontal damage: Evidence from the Ultimatum Game. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(4), 951–956. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4606-06.2007
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., & Damasio, A. (2007). Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgements. Nature, 446(7138), 908–911. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05631
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kohlberg, L. (1981). The Philosophy of Moral Development: Essays on Moral Development (Vol. 1). Harper Row.
   Google Scholar
• Koscik, T. R., & Tranel, D. (2012). The human ventromedial prefrontal cortex is critical for transitive inference. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 24(5), 1191–1204. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00203
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Krajbich, I., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Denburg, N. L., & Camerer, C. F. (2009). Economic games quantify diminished sense of guilt in patients with damage to the prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(7), 2188–2192. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5086-08.2009
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Levy, D. J., & Glimcher, P. W. (2012). The root of all value: A neural common currency for choice. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 22(6), 1027–1038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2012.06.001
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lewis, M., & Frank, M. C. (2016). The length of words reflects their conceptual complexity. Cognition, 153, 182–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.04.003
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Li, X., Yang, J., Li, P., & Li, H. (2016). Individual differences in moral judgment competence are related to activity of the prefrontal cortex when attributing blame to evil intention. Social neuroscience, 11(4), 438–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2015.1093960
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• McGuire, J., Langdon, R., Coltheart, M., & Mackenzie, C. (2009). A reanalysis of the personal/impersonal distinction in moral psychology research. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(3), 577–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.01.002
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Moll, J., & de Oliveira-Souza, R. (2007). Moral judgments, emotions and the utilitarian brain. Trends in cognitive sciences, 11(8), 319–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2007.06.001
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Moretti, L., Dragone, D., & diPellegrino, G. (2009). Reward and social valuation deficits following ventromedial prefrontal damage. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 21(1), 128–140. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21011
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Moretto, G., Ladavas, E., Mattioli, F., & diPellegrino, G. (2010). A psychophysiological investigation of moral judgment after ventromedial prefrontal damage. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 22(8), 1888–1899. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21367
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Moretto, G., Sellitto, M., & diPellegrino, G. (2013). Investment and repayment in a trust game after ventromedial prefrontal damage. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7, 593. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00593
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Murray, E. A. (2007). The amygdala, reward and emotion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(11), 489–497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2007.08.013
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Nicolle, A., & Goel, V. (2013). What is the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in emotinoal influences on reason? In I. Blanchette (Ed.), Emotion and Reasoning: Current Issues in Thinking and Reasoning (pp. 154–173). Psychology Press.
   Google Scholar
• Pelletier, G., & Fellows, L. K. (2019). A critical role for human ventromedial frontal lobe in value comparison of complex objects based on attribute configuration. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(21), 4124–4132. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2969-18.2019
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Piaget, J. (1932/1965). The Moral Judgment of the Child. Free Press.
   Google Scholar
• Rolls, E. T. (2015). The neural basis of emotion. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed., Vol. 7, pp. 477–482). Elsevier.
   Google Scholar
• Shenhav, A., & Greene, J. D. (2010). Moral judgments recruit domain-general valuation mechanisms to integrate representations of probability and magnitude. Neuron, 67(4), 667–677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.07.020
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Shenhav, A., & Greene, J. D. (2014). Integrative moral judgment: Dissociating the roles of the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(13), 4741–4749. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3390-13.2014
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sinnott-Armstrong, W., Young, L., & Cushman, F. (2010). Moral intuitions. In J. Doris & M. P. R. Group (Eds.), The Moral Psychology Handbook (pp. 246–272). Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Thomas, B. C., Croft, K. E., & Tranel, D. (2011). Harming kin to save strangers: Further evidence for abnormally utilitarian moral judgments after ventromedial prefrontal damage. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 23(9), 2186–2196. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2010.21591
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Vaidya, A. R., & Fellows, L. K. (2020). Under construction: Ventral and lateral frontal lobe contributions to value-based decision-making and learning. F1000research, 9, 158. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.21946.1
   Google Scholar
• Vaidya, A. R., Sefranek, M., & Fellows, L. K. (2018). Ventromedial frontal lobe damage alters how specific attributes are weighed in subjective valuation. Cerebral Cortex, 28(11), 3857–3867. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx246
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Valdesolo, P., & DeSteno, D. (2006). Manipulations of emotional context shape moral judgment. Psychological Science, 17(6), 476–477. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01731.x
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Vrticka, P., Sander, D., & Vuilleumier, P. (2011). Effects of emotion regulation strategy on brain responses to the valence and social content of visual scenes. Neuropsychologia, 49(5), 1067–1082. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.02.020
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wheatley, T., & Haidt, J. (2005). Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe. Psychological Science, 16(10), 780–784. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01614.x
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Winecoff, A., Clithero, J. A., Carter, R. M., Bergman, S. R., Wang, L., & Huettel, S. A. (2013). Ventromedial prefrontal cortex encodes emotional value. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(27), 11032–11039. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4317-12.2013
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wolf, R. C., Philippi, C. L., Motzkin, J. C., Baskaya, M. K., & Koenigs, M. (2014). Ventromedial prefrontal cortex mediates visual attention during facial emotion recognition. Brain, 137(6), 1772–1780. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awu063
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Young, L., Bechara, A., Tranel, D., Damasio, H., Hauser, M., & Damasio, A. (2010). Damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex impairs judgment of harmful intent. Neuron, 65(6), 845–851. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.003
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Young, L., & Dungan, J. (2012). Where in the brain is morality? Everywhere and maybe nowhere. Social neuroscience, 7(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2011.569146
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Young, L., & Saxe, R. (2008). The neural basis of belief encoding and integration in moral judgment. NeuroImage, 40(4), 1912–1920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.01.057
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Yu, L. Q., Kan, I. P., & Kable, J. A. (2020). Beyond a rod through the skull: A systematic review of lesion studies of the human ventromedial frontal lobe. Cognitive neuropsychology, 37(1–2), 97–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2019.1690981
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar