Moral and perceptual conflict processing are implemented by distinct brain activation and functional connectivity patterns
5 affiliations
- 1Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Zurich Center for Neuroeconomics, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- 3Healthy Longevity Center, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- 4State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- 5Beijing Key Laboratory of Safe AI and Superalignment, Beijing, China
Abstract
While humans resemble other primates in terms of motor and perceptual abilities, our behavior is uniquely characterized by morality—the ability to choose our actions based on specific ethical values. The evolutionary origins and neurobiological basis of moral behavior are debated intensely, with opposing proposals about whether moral decisions rely on domain-general decision-making neural circuitry (neural common currency hypothesis) or on unique neural processes that were shaped by evolutionary pressures associated with life in groups (social brain hypothesis). Here we examine the potential overlap between moral and perceptual decision-making, by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging with computational modeling of behavior in a novel task requiring human participants to make alternating moral and perceptual choices on identical stimuli. At the algorithmic level, we found that moral and perceptual choices were well fit by the same sequential sampling model, which allowed us to quantify and directly compare conflicts between the choice alternatives for both types of decision-making. At the implementational level, moral and perceptual choice conflicts were represented by distinct neural activity patterns; in fact, neural signals in some brain areas (e.g., temporoparietal junction) encoded the strength of the two types of conflict in opposite directions. Our findings suggest that while similar computational decision mechanisms underlie both moral and perceptual choices, their neural implementation is fundamentally different, supporting the social brain hypothesis.
Moral decisions may share computational mechanisms with perceptual decisions, but whether they rely on common or distinct neural systems remains debated. This study shows that moral and perceptual choices follow similar evidence-accumulation computations, yet engage fundamentally different neural representations, particularly in social brain regions such as the temporoparietal junction.
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BibTeX
@article{zhu2026moral,
title = {{Moral and perceptual conflict processing are implemented by distinct brain activation and functional connectivity patterns}},
author = {Ruida Zhu and Marcus Grueschow and Marius Moisa and Chao Liu and Christian C. Ruff},
journal = {PLOS Biology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3004025},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004025},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Moral and perceptual conflict processing are implemented by distinct brain activation and functional connectivity patterns
AU - Ruida Zhu
AU - Marcus Grueschow
AU - Marius Moisa
AU - Chao Liu
AU - Christian C. Ruff
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
JO - PLOS Biology
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3004025
UR - https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004025
AB - While humans resemble other primates in terms of motor and perceptual abilities, our behavior is uniquely characterized by morality—the ability to choose our actions based on specific ethical values. The evolutionary origins and neurobiological basis of moral behavior are debated intensely, with opposing proposals about whether moral decisions rely on domain-general decision-making neural circuitry (neural common currency hypothesis) or on unique neural processes that were shaped by evolutionary pressures associated with life in groups (social brain hypothesis). Here we examine the potential overlap between moral and perceptual decision-making, by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging with computational modeling of behavior in a novel task requiring human participants to make alternating moral and perceptual choices on identical stimuli. At the algorithmic level, we found that moral and perceptual choices were well fit by the same sequential sampling model, which allowed us to quantify and directly compare conflicts between the choice alternatives for both types of decision-making. At the implementational level, moral and perceptual choice conflicts were represented by distinct neural activity patterns; in fact, neural signals in some brain areas (e.g., temporoparietal junction) encoded the strength of the two types of conflict in opposite directions. Our findings suggest that while similar computational decision mechanisms underlie both moral and perceptual choices, their neural implementation is fundamentally different, supporting the social brain hypothesis. Moral decisions may share computational mechanisms with perceptual decisions, but whether they rely on common or distinct neural systems remains debated. This study shows that moral and perceptual choices follow similar evidence-accumulation computations, yet engage fundamentally different neural representations, particularly in social brain regions such as the temporoparietal junction.
SN - 1545-7885
ER -