Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex

Steven W Anderson; Antonio R Damasio; Antoine Bechara; Hanna Damasio; Daniel Tranel

doi:10.1038/14833

Back

Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex

Steven W Anderson, Antonio R Damasio, Antoine Bechara, Hanna Damasio and Daniel Tranel

Nature neuroscience, Vol.2(11), pp.1032-1037

11/1999

DOI: 10.1038/14833

PMID: 10526345

View Online

Abstract

The long-term consequences of early prefrontal cortex lesions occurring before 16 months were investigated in two adults. As is the case when such damage occurs in adulthood, the two early-onset patients had severely impaired social behavior despite normal basic cognitive abilities, and showed insensitivity to future consequences of decisions, defective autonomic responses to punishment contingencies and failure to respond to behavioral interventions. Unlike adult-onset patients, however, the two patients had defective social and moral reasoning, suggesting that the acquisition of complex social conventions and moral rules had been impaired. Thus early-onset prefrontal damage resulted in a syndrome resembling psychopathy.

Details

Title: Subtitle: Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex
Creators: Steven W Anderson - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Iowa College of Medicine
Antonio R Damasio - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Iowa College of Medicine
Antoine Bechara - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Iowa College of Medicine
Hanna Damasio - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Iowa College of Medicine
Daniel Tranel - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Iowa College of Medicine
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Nature neuroscience, Vol.2(11), pp.1032-1037
DOI: 10.1038/14833
PMID: 10526345
NLM abbreviation: Nat Neurosci
ISSN: 1097-6256
eISSN: 1546-1726
Language: English
Date published: 11/1999
Academic Unit: Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984002408402771

Metrics

143 Record Views

1034 Times Cited - Web of Science

See more details