Naturalistic narrative listening reveals a core brain network for detecting moral information

Moral cognition is a complex process, which recruits a wide range of mechanisms. It is not clear whether any of them reliably reflects moral content in the stimulus. We set out to test whether a specific mechanism of moral content representation and/or detection exists, and where it is, if it exists. To that end we used uni- and multi-variate analyses, including inter-subject pattern correlation, on functional MRI recordings of people listening to naturalistic narratives with moral content. We discovered a core brain network for detecting moral content, which prominently involves the TPJ, MTG/STG, among other regions. Moral content is reliably detected across narratives and participants, independent of instructions to do so, prominently involving the TPJ that functions as a detector. We identify specific regions for moral features, such as vices/virtues. Our methods and results open a path to further understand how the brain processes specific features of moral content.