A Cross-Cultural fMRI Investigation of Moral Decision Making Processes

We investigated the neural substrate of moral decision making processes of Koreans and Americans. Korean participants showed significantly more brain activity in the right putamen and right superior frontal gyrus in the moral-personal condition, and in the right postcentral sulcus in the moral-impersonal condition. American participants showed a significantly higher degree of activity in the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex in the moral-personal condition, and in the right medial frontal gyrus in the moral-impersonal condition. These findings support the ideas of the interaction between cultural environment, education and brain development that have been recently proposed in cultural and educational psychology.