Ventromedial prefrontal cortex

From Psy3242

Brain area – Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

The Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex is part of the prefrontal cortex of the brain found several inches behind the brow. It is the area of the brown that has a role in processing risk and fear by moderating emotions and emotional reactions. It is this area of the brain that suggests that emotion is linked to cognition and that unconscious empathy and emotion guide our decisions.

If brain cells in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex are damaged as the result of an aneurysm or a tumor then the patient’s issues of right and wrong are skewed. If this area of the brain is damaged you would feel no compunction in sacrificing one life for the good of all because moral inhibition whether it be learned or hereditary loses its influence.

When conducting gambling tasks that model real-life decisions, patients with bi-lateral lesions of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex opt for choices that yield high immediate gains in spite of higher future losses. Bechran et al considered three possibilities for this behavior: hypersensitivity to reward, insensitivity to punishment and insensitivity to future consequences so behavior is always guided by immediate prospects because the brain damaged patient is insensitive to future consequences either positive or negative and is guided by immediate prospects.

It is study of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex of the brain that led Liane Young, a Harvard Philosophy student to write: “There is some neurological basis for morality”. (Young, WSJ on line)

www.online.wsj.com www.jneurosci.org www.wikipedia.org www.brain.oxfordjournals.org