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Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task

INTRODUCTION: Wisdom is reportedly associated with better health and quality of life. However, our knowledge of the neurobiology of wisdom is still in the early stages of development. We aimed to improve our understanding by correlating a psychometric measure of the trait with patterns of brain acti...

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Autores principales: Thomas, Michael L., Martin, Averria S., Eyler, Lisa, Lee, Ellen E., Macagno, Eduardo, Devereaux, Mary, Chiong, Winston, Jeste, Dilip V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6577614/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31044549
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1302
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author Thomas, Michael L.
Martin, Averria S.
Eyler, Lisa
Lee, Ellen E.
Macagno, Eduardo
Devereaux, Mary
Chiong, Winston
Jeste, Dilip V.
author_facet Thomas, Michael L.
Martin, Averria S.
Eyler, Lisa
Lee, Ellen E.
Macagno, Eduardo
Devereaux, Mary
Chiong, Winston
Jeste, Dilip V.
author_sort Thomas, Michael L.
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Wisdom is reportedly associated with better health and quality of life. However, our knowledge of the neurobiology of wisdom is still in the early stages of development. We aimed to improve our understanding by correlating a psychometric measure of the trait with patterns of brain activation produced by a cognitive task theorized to be relevant to wisdom: moral decision‐making. In particular, we aimed to determine whether individual differences in wisdom interact with moral task complexity in relation to brain activation. METHODS: Participants were 39 community‐dwelling men and women aged 27–76 years, who completed moral and nonmoral decision‐making tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Brain activation in select regions of interest was correlated with participants' scores on the San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD‐WISE). RESULTS: Individual differences in wisdom were found to interact with brain response to moral versus nonmoral and moral personal versus impersonal dilemmas, particularly in regions in or near the default mode network. Persons with higher scores on the SD‐WISE had less contrast between moral and nonmoral dilemmas and greater contrast between moral‐personal and moral‐impersonal dilemmas than individuals with lower SD‐WISE scores. CONCLUSIONS: Results confirmed our hypothesis that individual differences in level of wisdom would interact with moral condition in relation to brain activation, and may underscore the relevance of considering one's own and others' actions and experiences in the context of wise thinking. Future studies are needed to replicate these findings and to examine specific neurocircuits.
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spelling pubmed-65776142019-06-20 Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task Thomas, Michael L. Martin, Averria S. Eyler, Lisa Lee, Ellen E. Macagno, Eduardo Devereaux, Mary Chiong, Winston Jeste, Dilip V. Brain Behav Original Research INTRODUCTION: Wisdom is reportedly associated with better health and quality of life. However, our knowledge of the neurobiology of wisdom is still in the early stages of development. We aimed to improve our understanding by correlating a psychometric measure of the trait with patterns of brain activation produced by a cognitive task theorized to be relevant to wisdom: moral decision‐making. In particular, we aimed to determine whether individual differences in wisdom interact with moral task complexity in relation to brain activation. METHODS: Participants were 39 community‐dwelling men and women aged 27–76 years, who completed moral and nonmoral decision‐making tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Brain activation in select regions of interest was correlated with participants' scores on the San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD‐WISE). RESULTS: Individual differences in wisdom were found to interact with brain response to moral versus nonmoral and moral personal versus impersonal dilemmas, particularly in regions in or near the default mode network. Persons with higher scores on the SD‐WISE had less contrast between moral and nonmoral dilemmas and greater contrast between moral‐personal and moral‐impersonal dilemmas than individuals with lower SD‐WISE scores. CONCLUSIONS: Results confirmed our hypothesis that individual differences in level of wisdom would interact with moral condition in relation to brain activation, and may underscore the relevance of considering one's own and others' actions and experiences in the context of wise thinking. Future studies are needed to replicate these findings and to examine specific neurocircuits. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-05-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6577614/ /pubmed/31044549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1302 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Thomas, Michael L.
Martin, Averria S.
Eyler, Lisa
Lee, Ellen E.
Macagno, Eduardo
Devereaux, Mary
Chiong, Winston
Jeste, Dilip V.
Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task
title Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task
title_full Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task
title_fullStr Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task
title_full_unstemmed Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task
title_short Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task
title_sort individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision‐making task
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6577614/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31044549
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1302
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