Washington, May 29 (IANS) A person’s evolving brain circuitry may play a key role in his changing moral perceptions over the years.
For instance, people may consider telling lies as unethical, but as they age, they might find it merely expedient, without delving into moral issues, says a new research.
A University of Chicago study combined brain scanning, eye-tracking and behavioural measures to understand how the brain responds to morally laden scenarios.
Both pre-school children and adults distinguish between damage done either intentionally or accidentally when assessing whether a perpetrator had done something wrong, the journal Cerebral Cortex reports.
Nonetheless, adults are much less likely than children to think someone should be punished for damaging an object, especially if the action was accidental, said study author Jean Decety, professor in psychology and Psychiatry at Chicago.
‘This is the first study to examine brain and behaviour relationships in response to moral and non-moral situations from a neurodevelopmental perspective,’ observed Decety,’ according to Chicago statement.
Decety and colleagues studied 127 participants, aged 4-36, who were shown short video clips while undergoing a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan. The team also measured changes in the dilation of the people’s pupils as they watched the clips.
The participants watched a total of 96 clips that portrayed intentional harm, such as someone being shoved, and accidental harm, such as someone being struck accidentally, such as a golf player swinging a club.
Eye tracking revealed that all of the participants, irrespective of their age, paid more attention to people being harmed and to objects being damaged than they did to the perpetrators.
The study revealed that the extent of activation in different areas of the brain as participants were exposed to the morally laden videos changed with age.
For young children, the amygdala, which is associated with emotional responses to a social situation, was much more activated than it was in adults.
In contrast, adults’ responses were highest in the dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex – areas of the brain that allow people to reflect on the values linked to outcomes and actions.
