Collaborative Research: Genetics of Moral Cognition

合作研究：道德认知的遗传学

• 批准号: 0952129
• 负责人: Joshua Greene
• 金额: $ 8.5万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0952129&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Genetics; Moral; Cognition

Abstract"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(Public Law 111-5)." Moral cognition is the study of moral judgment from the perspective of cognitive science, which views the brain as an information processor. Cognitive genetics is the study of how specific genetic variations affect how the brain processes information. The goal of this project is to begin the integration of these two young and rapidly progressing fields.Recent research on moral cognition indicates that moral judgment is not the product of a unified "moral sense" or "moral faculty."Rather, moral judgments are produced through a combination of automatic emotional responses and more controlled cognitive processes, where these two types of processes sometimes compete with one another. This kind of competition is elicited by classic moral dilemmas devised by philosophers: Is it morally acceptable to push one person in front of a trolley, killing that person, in order to prevent the trolley from running over and killing five people? People disagree about this case, but research shows that the tendency to say "no" is preferentially supported by automatic responses that depend on emotion-related brain regions such as the amygdala. In contrast, the tendency to say "yes" is preferentially supported by more controlled processes that depend on a part of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Recent research in cognitive genetics has identified variants of genes that influence neural activity in these brain regions. For example, there is a genetic variant that is known to affect emotional processing in the amygdala by regulating levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Likewise, there is different genetic variant that is known to affect controlled cognitive processing in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex by regulating levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. This new research builds on earlier studies to explore whether and how specific genes influence moral judgment by examining moral judgments made by people with different genotypes and by imaging the brains of people with different genotypes while they make moral judgments. Moral judgment is a matter of widespread concern, with relevance to such practically oriented fields as law, medicine, public health, and politics. More philosophically, our capacity for moral judgment is widely considered an essential feature of our humanity. Thus, a better understanding of moral judgment and its biological basis may inform important moral decisions and may teach us important lessons about ourselves.

摘要“该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏与再投资法》（公法111-5）资助的。”从认知科学的角度来看，道德认知是道德判断的研究，它将大脑视为信息处理器。认知遗传学是对特定遗传变异如何影响大脑处理信息的研究。该项目的目的是开始整合这两个年轻且快速发展的领域。道德认知的研究表明，道德判断不是统一的“道德意义”或“道德教师”的产物。相反，道德判断是通过自动情感反应和更具控制性认知过程的组合而有时与这些类型的两种类型竞争的另一种类型的相互竞争来产生的。这种竞争是由哲学家设计的经典道德困境引起的：将一个人推到手推车面前，杀死那个人，以防止手推车逃跑并杀死五个人，这在道德上是可以接受的吗？人们在这种情况下不同意，但是研究表明，倾向于依靠与情绪相关的大脑区域（如杏仁核）的自动响应来支持“否”。相比之下，说“是”的趋势优先由更受控的过程支持，这些过程取决于大脑的一部分，称为背外侧前额叶皮层。认知遗传学的最新研究确定了影响这些大脑区域神经活动的基因变异。例如，有一种遗传变异通过调节神经递质血清素的水平来影响杏仁核中的情绪处理。 同样，存在不同的遗传变异，它通过调节神经递质多巴胺的水平来影响背外侧前额叶皮层中受控的认知处理。这项新的研究基于早期的研究，以探讨特定基因是否以及如何通过检查具有不同基因型的人做出的道德判断，并通过对具有不同基因型的人的大脑进行成像，而他们做出道德判断。 道德判断是广泛关注的问题，与法律，医学，公共卫生和政治等实践领域有关。从哲学上讲，我们的道德判断能力被广泛认为是我们人类的基本特征。 因此，对道德判断及其生物学基础的更好理解可能会为重要的道德决定提供依据，并可能教会我们有关自己的重要教训。