Moral decision making and moral judgment in multiple sclerosis

Question: Multiple sclerosis (MS) impacts emotional and social functioning, potentially affecting higher order cognitive processes, including moral reasoning. Understanding these alterations may have significant clinical and ethical implications. To date, no study has examined moral decision making and moral judgment using standardized moral dilemmas and a more ecological approach encompassing all clinical phenotypes of the disease. Findings: People with MS exhibited greater moral permissiveness compared to healthy controls across various aspects of moral judgment. Importance: These findings highlight the necessity of integrating emotional and moral dimensions into the clinical assessment of people with MS. Next Steps: Future research should investigate the neural mechanisms underlying moral cognition in people with MS using neuroimaging techniques. This approach could help identify specific brain networks and their connectivity patterns involved in these processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)