道德可在實驗室被修改

道德可在實驗室被修改
Morality is modified in the lab
Tuesday, 30 March 2010 11:20 UK
Translation by Autumnson Blog

Scientists have shown they can change people's moral judgements by disrupting a specific area of the brain with magnetic pulses.
科學家們已展示，他們能夠改變人們的道德判斷，通過用磁脈衝破壞腦部的特定區域。
They identified a region of the brain just above and behind the right ear which appears to control morality.
他們確定大腦正上方的一個區域和右耳後面，它似乎是控制道德的。
And by using magnetic pulses to block cell activity they impaired volunteers' notion of right and wrong.
並用磁脈衝來阻止細胞的活動，它們損害志願者的正確和錯誤概念。
The small Massachusetts Institute of Technology study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
小麻省理工學院的研究，發表在國家科學院的法律程序。
How complex is our sense of morality?
我們的道德感有多麼複雜？

Lead researcher Dr Liane Young said: "You think of morality as being a really high-level behaviour.
首席研究員楊萊恩博士說：“你認為道德是一真正的高層次行為。
"To be able to apply a magnetic field to a specific brain region and change people's moral judgments is really astonishing."
“能應用一磁場至一特定的大腦區域，和改變人們的道德判斷，是實在令人吃驚的。”
The key area of the brain is a knot of nerve cells known as the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ).
大腦的關鍵區域是一個神經細胞的結，被稱為右顳頂葉交界處（RTPJ）。
The researchers subjected 20 volunteers to a number of tests designed to assess their notions of right and wrong.
研究人員對 20名志願者進行數個測試，旨在評估他們的是非觀。
In one scenario participants were asked how acceptable it was for a man to let his girlfriend walk across a bridge he knew to be unsafe.
在一場景參與者被問，一個男人有幾接受去讓他的女友行過一座他知道是不安全的橋。
After receiving a 500 millisecond magnetic pulse to the scalp, the volunteers delivered verdicts based on outcome rather than moral principle.
在接收到一500毫秒的磁脈衝在頭皮上，志願者交出判決，基於結果而不是道德準則。
If the girlfriend made it across the bridge safely, her boyfriend was not seen as having done anything wrong.
如果女友能安全過橋，她的男友不被視為做錯過任何事。
In effect, they were unable to make moral judgments that require an understanding of other people's intentions.
實際上，他們無法作出道德判斷，那要求理解其他人的想法。
Previous work has shown the RTPJ to be highly active when people think about the thoughts and beliefs of others.

電流
Electric currents
The MIT team pinpointed the region in volunteers using a sophisticated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scan.

They then targeted the area using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to create weak electric currents that temporarily stop brain cells working normally.

In one test, volunteers were exposed to TMS for 25 minutes before reading stories involving morally questionable characters, and being asked to judge their actions.

In a second experiment, volunteers were subjected to a much shorter 500 millisecond TMS burst while being asked to make a moral judgement.

In both cases, the researchers found that when the RTPJ was disrupted volunteers were more likely to judge actions solely on the basis of whether they caused harm - not whether they were morally wrong in themselves.

Morally dubious acts with a "happy" ending were often deemed acceptable.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a brain expert at University College London, said the findings were insightful.

"The study suggests that this region - the RTPJ - is necessary for moral reasoning.

"What is interesting is that this is a region that is very late developing - into adolescence and beyond right into the 20s.

"The next step would be to look at how or whether moral development changes through childhood into adulthood."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8593748.stm

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