Neuron
Volume 65, Issue 6, 25 March 2010, Pages 845-851
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Clinical Study
Damage to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Impairs Judgment of Harmful Intent

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.003Get rights and content
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Summary

Moral judgments, whether delivered in ordinary experience or in the courtroom, depend on our ability to infer intentions. We forgive unintentional or accidental harms and condemn failed attempts to harm. Prior work demonstrates that patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) deliver abnormal judgments in response to moral dilemmas and that these patients are especially impaired in triggering emotional responses to inferred or abstract events (e.g., intentions), as opposed to real or actual outcomes. We therefore predicted that VMPC patients would deliver abnormal moral judgments of harmful intentions in the absence of harmful outcomes, as in failed attempts to harm. This prediction was confirmed in the current study: VMPC patients judged attempted harms, including attempted murder, as more morally permissible relative to controls. These results highlight the critical role of the VMPC in processing harmful intent for moral judgment.

Highlights

► VMPC patients judged attempted harms as permissible, compared to control subjects ► VMPC patients judged attempted harms as more permissible than accidental harms ► VMPC is critical in processing harmful intentions for moral judgment ► Moral judgment may depend on emotional responses to harmful intent

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