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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on January 17, 2008
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm214
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Neural Correlates of Human Virtue Judgment

Hidehiko Takahashi1,2, Motoichiro Kato3, Masato Matsuura2, Michihiko Koeda4, Noriaki Yahata5, Tetsuya Suhara1 and Yoshiro Okubo4

1 Department of Molecular Neuroimaging, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 9-1, 4-chome, Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8555, Japan, 2 Department of Life Sciences and Bio-informatics, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima Bunkyo-ku Tokyo, Japan, 3 Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 4 Department of Neuropsychiatry, 5 Department of Pharmacology, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5, Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Address correspondence to Hidehiko Takahashi, MD, PhD, Department of Molecular Neuroimaging, National Institute of Radiological Sciences 9-1, 4-chome, Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba, Japan 263-8555. Email: hidehiko{at}nirs.go.jp.

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the brain regions implicated in moral cognition. However, those studies have focused exclusively on violation of social norms and negative moral emotions, and very little effort has been expended on the investigation of positive reactions to moral excellence. It remains unclear whether the brain regions implicated in moral cognition have specific roles in processing moral violation or, more generally, process human morality per se. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain activations during evaluation of moral beauty and depravity were investigated. Praiseworthiness for moral beauty was associated with activation in the orbitofrontal cortex, whereas blameworthiness for moral depravity was related to the posterior superior temporal sulcus. Humans might have developed different neurocognitive systems for evaluating blameworthiness and praiseworthiness. The central process of moral beauty evaluation might be related to that of aesthetic evaluation. Our finding might contribute to a better understanding of human morality.

Key Words: blameworthiness • moral • orbitofrontal cortex • praiseworthiness • superior temporal sulcus • virtue


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