Brain Responses to the Acquired Moral Status of Faces

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Tania Singer - , University College London (Author)
  • Stefan J. Kiebel - , Chair of cognitive computational neuroscience, University College London (Author)
  • Joel S. Winston - , University College London (Author)
  • Raymond J. Dolan - , University College London (Author)
  • Chris D. Frith - , University College London (Author)

Abstract

We examined whether neural responses associated with judgments of socially relevant aspects of the human face extend to stimuli that acquire their significance through learning in a meaningful interactive context, specifically reciprocal cooperation. During fMRI, subjects made gender judgments on faces of people who had been introduced as fair (cooperators) or unfair (defector) players through repeated play of a sequential Prisoner's Dilemma game. To manipulate moral responsibility, players were introduced as either intentional or nonintentional agents. Our behavioral (likebility ratings and memory performance) as well as our imaging data confirm the saliency of social fairness for human interactions. Relative to neutral faces, faces of intentional cooperators engendered increased activity in left amygdala, bilateral insula, fusiform gyrus, STS, and reward-related areas. Our data indicate that rapid learning regarding the moral status of others is expressed in altered neural activity within a system associated with social cognition.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)653-662
Number of pages10
JournalNeuron
Volume41
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - 19 Feb 2004
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 14980212

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas