Patients who have suffered damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex can understand ethical principles intellectually but struggle to apply them in real-life decisions. In laboratory trolley-problem scenarios, they make unusually utilitarian choices, willing to sacrifice individuals for greater good outcomes at rates higher than typical respondents. Researchers suggest this region integrates emotional responses with moral reasoning.
The passage suggests that
moral reasoning operates entirely through intellectual analysis
brain damage enhances ethical decision-making
utilitarian choices are always wrong
emotional processing may be a necessary component of typical moral judgment
Correct Answer: D
Choice D is the best answer. Damage to emotion-integration region produces atypical moral choices.
- Context clues: Patients understand ethics mentally but decide differently; region "integrates emotional responses with moral reasoning."
- Meaning: If lacking emotional integration changes moral decisions, emotions are normally involved.
- Verify: "Unusually utilitarian" choices when emotion-integration is impaired shows emotion's role.
💡 Strategy: When damage to a brain region changes behavior, infer that region's function in typical behavior.
Choice A is incorrect because emotional responses are involved in moral reasoning. Choice B is incorrect because the patients' choices are described as "unusual," implying deviation from normal. Choice C is incorrect because the passage doesn't morally evaluate utilitarian choices.