Category: Health and Wellness
Ran across this, thought it was interesting and decided to share.
Sorry, I didn't get the link to the article. I'll do better next time. (Right!)
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Brain damage can alter moral compass
Denise Gellene
March 23, 2007
DAMAGE to an area of the brain behind the forehead, centimetres behind the eyes, transforms the way people make moral judgements in life-or-death situations,
scientists are reporting.
Asked to resolve hypothetical dilemmas — such as tossing a person from a bridge into the path of a runaway train carriage to save five others — people with
damage to their ventromedial prefrontal cortex tended to sacrifice one life to save many, according to a study published by the journal Nature.
People with intact brains were far less likely to kill or harm someone when confronted with the same scenarios.
The study suggests that an aversion to hurting others is hard-wired into the brain.
"Part of our moral behaviour is grounded … in a specific part of our brains," said Antonio Damasio, one of the study's lead authors and director of the
Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California.
The findings could not be used to predict behaviour, Dr Damasio said, because the scenarios presented in the study were unrealistic. More research was needed
to determine if people with and without brain damage would react differently when faced with real-world moral dilemmas, he said.
A finding linking a specific type of brain damage to day-to-day moral behaviour could have legal implications in criminal cases. Researchers said the study
was only meant to explore the psychological underpinnings of moral actions, not to characterise decisions as right or wrong.
Bob
Hmmmmm ...
I knew a guy with damage to that part of his brain from a car accident. He had no impulse control and no conscience as far as I could tell. He did whatever he damn well pleased no matter how it might affect others. I don't really know if he was that way before the accident though.