VMPC Regulates Response To Danger, Study Finds

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - 13:56 in Psychology & Sociology

A new study published in Neuron suggests that our ability to respond with outrage toward people who attempt to harm us is seated in a brain region called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC). Patients with damage to this brain area are unable to conjure a normal emotional response to hypothetical situations in which a person tries, but fails, to kill another person. Therefore, they judge the situation based only on the outcome, and do not hold the attempted murderer morally responsible. The findings support the idea that making moral judgments requires at least two processes — a logical assessment of the intention, and an emotional reaction to it. read more

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