Neural processing of moral content reflects moral identity in 10‐year‐old children

Moral identity relates to the neural processing of third-party moral behavior

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsz016 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 435-445 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Carolina Pletti ◽

Jean Decety ◽

Markus Paulus

Keyword(s):

Moral Identity ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Third Party ◽

Self Concept ◽

Neural Processing ◽

Moral Self ◽

Early Posterior Negativity ◽

Early Processing ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Implicit And Explicit

Abstract Moral identity, or moral self, is the degree to which being moral is important to a person’s self-concept. It is hypothesized to be the `missing link’ between moral judgment and moral action. However, its cognitive and psychophysiological mechanisms are still subject to debate. In this study, we used event-related potentials to examine whether the moral self-concept is related to how people process prosocial and antisocial actions. To this end, participants’ implicit and explicit moral self-concept were assessed. We examined whether individual differences in moral identity relate to differences in early, automatic processes [i.e. Early Posterior Negativity (EPN), N2] or late, cognitively controlled processes (i.e. late positive potential) while observing prosocial and antisocial situations. Results show that a higher implicit moral self was related to a lower EPN amplitude for prosocial scenarios. In addition, an enhanced explicit moral self was related to a lower N2 amplitude for prosocial scenarios. The findings demonstrate that the moral self affects the neural processing of morally relevant stimuli during third-party evaluations. They support theoretical considerations that the moral self already affects (early) processing of moral information.

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Moral identity relates to the neural processing of third-party moral behavior

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsz057 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Carolina Pletti ◽

Jean Decety ◽

Markus Paulus

Keyword(s):

Moral Identity ◽

Moral Behavior ◽

Third Party ◽

Neural Processing

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Musical Experience Shapes Neural Processing

Zeitschrift für Neuropsychologie ◽

10.1024/1016-264x/a000295 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 81-86

Author(s):

Wido Nager ◽

Tilla Franke ◽

Tobias Wagner-Altendorf ◽

Eckart Altenmüller ◽

Thomas F. Münte

Keyword(s):

Mismatch Negativity ◽

Pure Tone ◽

Musical Instrument ◽

Active Listening ◽

Musical Experience ◽

Neural Processing ◽

Neural Adaptations

Abstract. Playing a musical instrument professionally has been shown to lead to structural and functional neural adaptations, making musicians valuable subjects for neuroplasticity research. Here, we follow the hypothesis that specific musical demands further shape neural processing. To test this assumption, we subjected groups of professional drummers, professional woodwind players, and nonmusicians to pure tone sequences and drum sequences in which infrequent anticipations of tones or drum beats had been inserted. Passively listening to these sequences elicited a mismatch negativity to the temporally deviant stimuli which was greater in the musicians for tone series and particularly large for drummers for drum sequences. In active listening conditions drummers more accurately and more quickly detected temporally deviant stimuli.

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