MSc project, ION, 2013/2014
How Dopamine Influences Moral Behavior
Supervisors: Dr Molly Crockett, Prof Peter Dayan, Prof Ray Dolan.
Location: Functional Imaging Laboratory, 12 Queen Square.
Aims and background
The neurotransmitter dopamine has long been implicated in reward processing and social behavior. Current theories of dopamine function suggest that dopamine plays a critical role in linking actions to reward representations. Since helpful actions have been associated with activation in reward circuitry, dopamine may regulate moral behavior by enhancing the likelihood of previous helpful actions.
In the current project, we seek to understand the role of dopamine in moral judgment and behavior within the context of its influence on reinforcement learning. Specifically, people find it easier to act to obtain a reward than to withhold action to obtain a reward. Studies suggest this learning bias may be stronger when dopamine levels are artificially high; in other words, dopamine promotes active responding to obtain good outcomes. Thus, the influence of dopamine manipulations on moral judgment and behavior may critically depend on whether morally charged actions are active or passive. In the current project, we will explicitly test this hypothesis using a novel behavioral task in which subjects make active or passive decisions that result in helpful consequences (reduction of pain) to another person. We predict that enhancing dopamine function (using the dopamine precursor L-DOPA) will enhance helpful behaviours, but only for active responses. Such findings may raise important questions about the feasibility of ‘moral enhancement’.
Methods and what it will involve for you
Initially you will be involved with developing and piloting the behavioral task. This task will form the basis for a pharmacological study in healthy volunteers. You will have the opportunity to learn task development in Cogent and statistical analysis of behavioral data. Preferred applicants will have strong conceptual knowledge about statistical analysis and basic programming/scripting skills (matlab, bash, python, R). Depending on the level of commitment you may also be involved with fMRI studies.
Your role will be:
1. Assist with developing and programming the behavioral task.
- Recruit healthy volunteers to participate in a pilot study to test the behavioral task (using our department website etc.).
- Conduct the pharmacological experiment, collect and store the behavioural data. You will initially be supervised until you can carry on independently.
- You will be encouraged, but are not required, to take an active role in data analysis. If interested, the researchers would be happy to provide help and guidance in this respect.
If you are interested, please send an email and a copy of your CV to:
Dr Molly Crockett,
Prof Ray Dolan,