Opinion: The neural basis of human moral cognition

Jorge Moll, Roland Zahn, Ricardo De Oliveira-Souza, Frank Krueger, Jordan Grafman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

739 Scopus citations

Abstract

Moral cognitive neuroscience is an emerging field of research that focuses on the neural basis of uniquely human forms of social cognition and behaviour. Recent functional imaging and clinical evidence indicates that a remarkably consistent network of brain regions is involved in moral cognition. These findings are fostering new interpretations of social behavioural impairments in patients with brain dysfunction, and require new approaches to enable us to understand the complex links between individuals and society. Here, we propose a cognitive neuroscience view of how cultural and context-dependent knowledge, semantic social knowledge and motivational states can be integrated to explain complex aspects of human moral cognition.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)799-809
Number of pages11
JournalNature Reviews Neuroscience
Volume6
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2005

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

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