Volume 10, Issue 1 (January & February 2019)                   BCN 2019, 10(1): 37-48 | Back to browse issues page


XML Print


Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:

Ziaei M, Togha M, Rahimian E, Persson J. The Causal Role of Right Frontopolar Cortex in Moral Judgment, Negative Emotion Induction, and Executive Control. BCN 2019; 10 (1) :37-48
URL: http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/article-1-651-en.html
1- Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
2- Department of Headache, Iranian Center of Neurological Research, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
3- Haghighat and Shefa MRI Centers, Tehran, Iran.
4- Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:  
Introduction: Converging evidence suggests that both emotional and cognitive processes are critically involved in moral judgment, and may be mediated by discrete parts of the prefrontal cortex. The current study aimed at investigating the mediatory effect of right Frontopolar Cortex (rFPC) on the way that emotions affect moral judgments. 
Methods: Six adult patients affected by rFPC and 10 healthy controls were included in the study. Participants made judgements on moral dilemmas after being shown either neutral or emotional pictures. The role of rFPC in executive control and emotional experience was also examined.
Results: The study results showed that inducing an emotional state increased the number of utilitarian responses both in the patients and controls. However, no significant differences were observed between the patients and controls in response time or the number of utilitarian responses. Also, no significant differences were observed in personal and impersonal dilemmas before and after the emotion induction in intergroup comparisons. Results of the executive control tasks showed reduced performance in patients affected by rFPC compared with the controls. 
Conclusion: The results of the current study suggested that rFPC might not have a direct role in mediating emotional processes during moral judgments, but possibly this region is important in a network supporting executive control functions.
Type of Study: Original | Subject: Cognitive Neuroscience
Received: 2015/07/9 | Accepted: 2017/12/4 | Published: 2019/01/1

References
1. Agresti, A. (2001). Exact inference for categorical data: recent advances and continuing controversies. Statistics in Medicine, 20(17-18), 2709-922. [DOI:10.1002/sim.738] [PMID] [DOI:10.1002/sim.738]
2. Alvarez, J. A., & Emory, E. (2006). Executive functions and frontal lobes: A meta-analytic review. Neuropsychology Review, 16(1), 17-42. [DOI:10.1007/s11065-006-9002-x] [PMID] [DOI:10.1007/s11065-006-9002-x]
3. Aron, A. R., Robbins, T. W., & Poldrack, R. A. (2004). Inhibition and the right inferior frontal Cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(4), 170-7. [DOI:10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.010] [PMID] [DOI:10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.010]
4. Aron, A. R., Fletcher, P. C., Bullmore, T., Sahakin, B. J., & Robbins, T. W. (2003). Stop-signal inhibition disrupted by damage to right inferior frontal gyrus in humans. Nature Neuroscience, 6(2), 115-6. [DOI:10.1038/nn1003] [PMID] [DOI:10.1038/nn1003]
5. Brench, C. J., Frith, C. D., Grasby, P. M., Friston, K. J., Paulesu, E., Frackowiak, R. S., et al. (1993). Investigation of the functional anatomy of attention using the stroop task. Neuropsychologia, 31(9), 907-22. [DOI:10.1016/0028-3932(93)90147-R] [DOI:10.1016/0028-3932(93)90147-R]
6. Cabeza, R., & Nyberg, L. (2000). Imaging cognition:An empirical review of 275 PET and fMRI studies. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12(1), 1-47. [DOI:10.1162/08989290051137585] [PMID] [DOI:10.1162/08989290051137585]
7. Carter, C. S., Mintun, M., & Cohen, J. D. (1995). Interference and facilitation effects during selective attention: An H2150 PET study of stroop task performance. NeuroImage, 2(4), 264-72. [DOI:10.1006/nimg.1995.1034] [PMID] [DOI:10.1006/nimg.1995.1034]
8. Ciaramelli, E., Muccioli, M., La`davas, E., & Pellegrino, G. D. (2007). Selective deficit in personal moral judgment following damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Scan, 2(2), 84-92. [DOI:10.1093/scan/nsm001] [DOI:10.1093/scan/nsm001]
9. Clark, L., Blackwell, A. D., Aron, A. R., Turner, D. C., Dowson, J., Robbins, T. W., et al. (2007). Association Between Response Inhibition and Working Memory in Adult ADHD: A Link to Right Frontal Cortex Pathology? Biological Psychiatry, 61(12), 1395-401. [DOI:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.07.020] [PMID] [DOI:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.07.020]
10. Demakis, G. J. (2003). A meta-analytic review of the sensitivity of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test to frontal and lateralized frontal brain damage. Neuropsychology, 17(2), 255-64. [DOI:10.1037/0894-4105.17.2.255] [PMID] [DOI:10.1037/0894-4105.17.2.255]
11. Firstmann, B. U., Jahfari, S., Scholte, H. S., Wolfensteller, U., Van den wildenberg, W. P. M., & Ridderinkhof, K. R. (2008). Function and structure of the right inferior frontal cortex predict individual differences in response inhibition: A model-based approach. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(39), 9790-6. [DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1465-08.2008] [PMID] [DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1465-08.2008]
12. Forbes, C. E., & Grafman, J. (2010).The role of human prefrontal cortex in social cognition and moral judgment. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 33(2), 299-324. [DOI:10.1146/annurev-neuro-060909-153230] [PMID] [DOI:10.1146/annurev-neuro-060909-153230]
13. Fuster, J. M. (1989). The prefrontal cortex: Anatomy, physiology, and neuropsychology of the frontal lobe. 3rd Ed. New York: Raven Press.
14. Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1987). Circuitry of primate prefrontal cortex and the regulation of behavior by representational memory. American Physiological Society (Ed.), Handbook of Physiology (pp. 373-417). Bethesda: American Physiological Society.
15. 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. [DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.09.027] [PMID] [DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.09.027]
16. 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), 2105–8. [DOI:10.1126/science.1062872] [PMID] [DOI:10.1126/science.1062872]
17. Goldstein, B., Obrzut J. E., & John, C. (2004). The impact of frontal and non-frontal brain tumor lesions on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance. Brain and Cognition, 54(2), 110-6. [DOI:10.1016/S0278-2626(03)00269-0] [DOI:10.1016/S0278-2626(03)00269-0]
18. Haidt, J. (2003). The moral emotions. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of Affective Sciences (pp. 852-870). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19. Koenigs, M. R., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., et al. (2007). Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgments. Nature, 446(7138), 908–11. [DOI:10.1038/nature05631] [PMID] [PMCID] [DOI:10.1038/nature05631]
20. Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1995). International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Bethesda: National Institute of Mental Health Centre for the Study of Emotion and Attention.
21. Lenartowicz, A., Verbruggen, F., Logan, G. D., & Poldrack, R. A. (2011). Inhibition-related activation in right inferior frontal gyrus in the absence of inhibitory cues. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(11), 3388-99. [DOI:10.1162/jocn_a_00031] [PMID] [DOI:10.1162/jocn_a_00031]
22. Mendez, M. F. (2006). What frontotemporal dementia reveals about the neurobiological basis of morality. Medical Hypotheses, 67(2), 411–8. [DOI:10.1016/j.mehy.2006.01.048] [PMID] [DOI:10.1016/j.mehy.2006.01.048]
23. Moll, J., de Oliveira-Souza, R., & Zahn, R. (2008). The neural basis of moral cognition sentiments, concepts, and values. Annual of New York Academic of Sciences, 1124, 161–80. [DOI:10.1196/annals.1440.005] [PMID] [DOI:10.1196/annals.1440.005]
24. Moll, J., Zahn, R., de Oliveira-Souza, R., Krueger, F., & Grafman, J. (2005). The neural basis of human moral cognition. Nature Reviews, 6(10), 799–809. [DOI:10.1038/nrn1768] [PMID] [DOI:10.1038/nrn1768]
25. Moll, J., de Oliveira-Souza, R., Eslinger, P. J., Bramati, I. E., Mourão-Miranda, J., Andreiuolo, P. A., et al. (2002). The neural correlates of moral sensitivity: A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of basic and moral emotions. Journal of Neuroscience, 22(7), 2730–6. [DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.22-07-02730.2002] [PMID] [DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.22-07-02730.2002]
26. Moll, J., Eslinger, P. J., & de Oliveira-Souza, R. (2001). Frontopolar and anterior temporal cortex activation in a moral judgment task: Preliminary functional MRI results in normal subjects. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria, 59(3-B), 657–64. [DOI:10.1590/S0004-282X2001000500001] [PMID] [DOI:10.1590/S0004-282X2001000500001]
27. Roberts, K. L., & Hall, D. A. (2008). Examining a supramodal network for conflict processing: A systematic review and novel functional magnetic resonance imaging data for related visual and auditory stroop tasks. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(6), 1063-78. [DOI:10.1162/jocn.2008.20074] [PMID] [DOI:10.1162/jocn.2008.20074]
28. Rubia, K., Smith, A. B., Brammer, M. J., & Taylor, E. (2003). Right inferior prefrontal cortex mediates response inhibition while mesial prefrontal cortex is responsible for error detection. NeuroImage, 20(1), 351-8. [DOI:10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00275-1] [DOI:10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00275-1]
29. Schnall, S., Benton, J., & Harvey, S. (2008). With a clean conscience, cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments. Psychological Science, 19(12), 1219-22. [DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02227.x] [PMID] [DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02227.x]
30. Strohminger, N., Lewis, R. L., & Meyer, D. E. (2011). Divergent effects of different positive emotions on moral judgment. Cognition, 119(2), 295-300. [DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.012] [PMID] [DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.012]
31. Stuss, D. T., & Benson, D. F. (1986). The frontal lobes. New York: Raven Press.
32. Swick, D., Ashley, V., & Turken, U. (2008). Left inferior frontal gyrus is critical for response inhibition. BMC Neuroscience, 9, 102-9. [DOI:10.1186/1471-2202-9-102] [PMID] [PMCID] [DOI:10.1186/1471-2202-9-102]
33. Valdesolo, P., & DeSteno, D. (2006). Manipulations of emotional context shape moral judgment. Psychological Science, 17(6), 476–7. [DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01731.x] [PMID] [DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01731.x]
34. Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS Scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–70. [DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063] [DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063]
35. Wheatley, T., & Haidt, J. (2005). Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe. Psychological Science, 16(10), 780-4. [DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01614.x] [PMID] [DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01614.x]
36. Ziaei, M., Khodapanahi, M. K., Heidari, M., & Keshvari, F. (2009). [Effect of emotion manipulation on reaction times in personal and impersonal moral judgments (Persian)]. Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 7(214), 155-63.

Add your comments about this article : Your username or Email:
CAPTCHA

Send email to the article author


Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© 2024 CC BY-NC 4.0 | Basic and Clinical Neuroscience

Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb