Citation

van Noordt S, Chiappetta K, Good D. Soc. Neurosci. 2016; 12(5): 541-550.

Affiliation

b Department of Psychology and Centre for Neuroscience , Brock University, Neuropsychology Cognitive Research Lab , 500 Glenridge Ave., St. Catharines , Ontario , Canada , L2S 3A1.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17470919.2016.1195773

PMID

27237576

Abstract

Converging evidence shows that the prefrontal cortex is involved in moral decision-making. Individuals who have suffered injury to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex are more willing to endorse personal moral transgressions (e.g., Koenigs et al. 2007), make their decisions faster (e.g., Ciaramelli et al., 2007), and have attenuated sympathetic responses to those violations (e.g., Moretto et al., 2010). We examined whether university students who have experienced a mild head injury (MHI), and are asymptomatic, present with a similar pattern of responding to moral dilemmas. Students reporting a history of MHI responded more quickly when making moral choices and exhibited less reticence towards the endorsement of personal moral transgressions than their non-MHI counterparts. Our results are consistent with studies involving persons with more serious, and evident, neuronal injury, and emphasize the important relationship between head injury and moral decision-making.

Language: en