Moral reasoning through the eyes of persons with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Persons with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) can exhibit apparently antisocial behaviors. An example is their tendency to adopt utilitarian choices in sacrificial moral dilemmas, i.e. harmful actions to promote overall welfare. Moral cognition models interpret such tendencies as deriving from a lack of emotional engagement and selective impairment in prosocial sentiments.

Methods

We applied a qualitative approach to test those theoretical assumptions and to further explore the emotional experiences and values of people with bvFTD while they contemplate moral scenarios. We conducted semistructured interviews with 14 participants: 7 persons with bvFTD and 7 older healthy controls. Transcripts were coded using ATLAS.ti 5.0.

Results

During

SUBMITTER: Antoniou R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10365271 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature