Moral emotions and their neural correlates

This thesis aims to investigate and present what the most recent research can disclose about moral emotions and their neural correlates. This literature review provides an overview of some frameworks and theories regarding moral emotions and their neural correlates, with a specific focus on positive and negative moral emotions such as compassion, pride, gratitude, guilt, shame, and embarrassment. The theoretical background of moral emotions within cognitive neuroscience has been introduced together with research of the emotional brain and morality to further clarify the main topic of this thesis, moral emotions and their neural correlates. Moral emotions are very crucial in understanding humans’ behavioural adherence to their moral standards. For example, shame is described as the way we relate and perceive ourselves. It is related to how we believe and think other people see us and our incompetence or failure to fulfil the desire to be a good person, e.g. “I think, feel and believe that I am a bad person for lying to someone”. These topics have been discoursed through this thesis showing significant results. There are many neural regions, e.g. medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) which get activated whilst experiencing distinct moral emotions. However, studies have shown that there is no one-to-one correspondence between a specific brain area and a specific emotion, instead, research has suggested there are particular topographical anatomical networks in the brain which get activated when experiencing different emotions. There are few studies in this field; their results should be taken with caution. The field continues to grow, and we can learn more about moral emotions and their neural correlates today and in the future