Effects of Brain Lesions on Moral Agency: Ethical Dilemmas in Investigating Moral Behavior

Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences book series (CTBN, volume 19)

Abstract

Understanding how the “brain produces behavior” is a guiding idea in neuroscience. It is thus of no surprise that establishing an interrelation between brain pathology and antisocial behavior has a long history in brain research. However, interrelating the brain with moral agency—the ability to act in reference to right and wrong—is tricky with respect to therapy and rehabilitation of patients affected by brain lesions. In this contribution, we outline the complexity of the relationship between the brain and moral behavior, and we discuss ethical issues of the neuroscience of ethics and of its clinical consequences. First, we introduce a theory of moral agency and apply it to the issue of behavioral changes caused by brain lesions. Second, we present a typology of brain lesions both with respect to their cause, their temporal development, and the potential for neural plasticity allowing for rehabilitation. We exemplify this scheme with case studies and outline major knowledge gaps that are relevant for clinical practice. Third, we analyze ethical pitfalls when trying to understand the brain–morality relation. In this way, our contribution addresses both researchers in neuroscience of ethics and clinicians who treat patients affected by brain lesions to better understand the complex ethical questions, which are raised by research and therapy of brain lesion patients.

Keywords

Brain injury Brain lesion Neurodegenerative diseases Moral agency Neuroscience of ethics Neuroethics 

Abbreviations

DBS

Deep brain stimulation

DLPFC

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

FTD

Frontotemporal dementia

NMDA

N-Methyl-D-aspartate

PET

Positron emission tomography

PFC

Prefrontal cortex

SPECT

Single-photon emission computed tomography

ToM

Theory of mind

VMPFC

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex

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Notes

Acknowledgments

Funding: This research has been partly supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany (MU 3321/1-1).

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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of Zurich, University Research Priority Program EthicsZürichSwitzerland
  2. 2.Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Forschungsbereich Mind and BrainBerlinGermany

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