Invited Lecture: Jean Decety , PhD

Abstract: Whether emotion is a source of moral judgments remains controversial. I will provide evidence from a recent series of functional MRI and ERPs studies with typically developing children and adolescents, as well as incarcerated juvenile and adult psychopaths in support of the view that affective arousal plays a fundamental and perhaps necessary role in the development of morality. I will also argue that moral reasoning is underpinned by specific neural circuitry, but these circuits are not unique to morality; rather, they involve regions and systems underlying specific states of feelings, cognitive and motivational processes. These circuits emerge and are interconnected over the course of development to produce adaptive social behavior.