Naturalistic narrative listening reveals a core brain network for detecting moral information
- 1Tilburg University
Abstract
Moral cognition is a complex process, which recruits a wide range of mechanisms. It is not clear whether any of them reliably reflects moral content in the stimulus. We set out to test whether a specific mechanism of moral content representation and/or detection exists, and where it is, if it exists. To that end we used uni- and multi-variate analyses, including inter-subject pattern correlation, on functional MRI recordings of people listening to naturalistic narratives with moral content. We discovered a core brain network for detecting moral content, which prominently involves the TPJ, MTG/STG, among other regions. Moral content is reliably detected across narratives and participants, independent of instructions to do so, prominently involving the TPJ that functions as a detector. We identify specific regions for moral features, such as vices/virtues. Our methods and results open a path to further understand how the brain processes specific features of moral content.
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BibTeX
@misc{klincewicz2026naturalistic,
title = {{Naturalistic narrative listening reveals a core brain network for detecting moral information}},
author = {M. Klincewicz and S. Collin},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.04.749401},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.04.749401v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Naturalistic narrative listening reveals a core brain network for detecting moral information
AU - M. Klincewicz
AU - S. Collin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.04.749401
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.04.749401v1
AB - Moral cognition is a complex process, which recruits a wide range of mechanisms. It is not clear whether any of them reliably reflects moral content in the stimulus. We set out to test whether a specific mechanism of moral content representation and/or detection exists, and where it is, if it exists. To that end we used uni- and multi-variate analyses, including inter-subject pattern correlation, on functional MRI recordings of people listening to naturalistic narratives with moral content. We discovered a core brain network for detecting moral content, which prominently involves the TPJ, MTG/STG, among other regions. Moral content is reliably detected across narratives and participants, independent of instructions to do so, prominently involving the TPJ that functions as a detector. We identify specific regions for moral features, such as vices/virtues. Our methods and results open a path to further understand how the brain processes specific features of moral content.
ER -