Ethics and the brains of psychopaths: The significance of psychopathy for our ethical and legal theories (original) (raw)
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The controversial relationship between neuroscience and moral responsibility in psychopaths
Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2018
Background: From fields such as neuroethics and legal medicine it is increasingly common to raise the issue on whether it is necessary to rethink questions such as moral and criminal responsibility in individuals fulfilling Hare's criteria for psychopathy. The Hare' s Psychopathy Checklist Revised is currently the diagnostic gold standard for psychopathy and defines a type of personality characterized by interpersonal, affective, and behavioral symptoms. Moral and criminal responsibility in these individuals is now being reconsidered due to new data provided by neuroscience. However, the translation from these neuroscientific findings into terms of moral responsibility is neither direct nor evident. The aim of this review is to assemble the available neuroscientific evidence and to clarify the moral consequences of these findings. Main text: A genetic base for psychopathy exists as well as brain functionality or even structural variations. However, these structural changes are not robust and consistent across the different studies. Moreover, this body of evidence uses different methodologies and, for this reason, it is hardly comparable. Findings from the field of neuropsychology such as the emotional alterations, empathy impairment or emotional theory of mind (ToM) deviance are equivocal, controversial, and a focus of debate. These can be well understood as correlates of the particular psychopaths' moral functioning more than as a deterministic causality for their conduct. In addition, a biological and neuropsychological model of moral responsibility open to scientific analysis does not exist. Ultimately, moral responsibility has a biological and neuropsychological basis, but it cannot be fully explained by these constructs. Conclusion: This review assesses new findings in the study of moral and criminal responsibility in psychopaths, and the different interpretations about them. It concludes that, in the absence of an experimental model of moral responsibility, current data, though controversial, are not definitive arguments that can reduce or to eliminate moral, and subsequently, criminal responsibility.
Psychopathy: Legal and neuroscientific aspects
Anuario de Psicología Jurídica, 2017
Psychopathy is characterised by emotional disturbances that affect interpersonal behaviour and decisionmaking. The objective of this paper is to review the most recent contributions to the field of neuroscience of psychopathy and the implications that this disorder has on the criminal legal field. In regards to this last aspect, we evaluate the issue of psychopaths' accountability and the incidence of psychopathy in many other penal institutions. In terms of the contributions of neuroscience, we will focus on the orbitofrontal (ofPFC) and ventromedial (vmPFC) regions of the frontal lobes and on the amygdala. Data spanning from the nineteenth century to the present indicate that damage to the ofPFC and vmPFC is the basis of behaviours that have been referred to as pseudopsychopathic. The earlier during brain development the damage occurs, the more likely these behaviours will resemble those of psychopaths. The damage to the amygdala is rather related to impairments in the ability to distinguish facial expressions of fear and the capacity to feel emotions. Damage to ofPFC, vmPFC, and amygdala are highly relevant to the expression of pseudopsychopathic behaviours.
Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2013
Psychopathic behavior has long been attributed to a fundamental deficit in fear that arises from impaired amygdala function. Growing evidence has demonstrated that fearpotentiated startle (FPS) and other psychopathy-related deficits are moderated by focus of attention, but to date, no work on adult psychopathy has examined attentional modulation of the amygdala or concomitant recruitment of relevant attentionrelated circuitry. Consistent with previous FPS findings, here we report that psychopathy-related differences in amygdala activation appear and disappear as a function of goal-directed attention. Specifically, decreased amygdala activity was observed in psychopathic offenders only when attention was engaged in an alternative goal-relevant task prior to presenting threat-relevant information. Under this condition, psychopaths also exhibited greater activation in selective-attention regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) than did nonpsychopaths, and this increased LPFC activation mediated psychopathy's association with decreased amygdala activation. In contrast, when explicitly attending to threat, amygdala activation did not differ in psychopaths and nonpsychopaths. This pattern of amygdala activation highlights the potential role of LPFC in mediating the failure of psychopathic individuals to process fear and other important information when it is peripheral to the primary focus of goal-directed attention. Keywords Attention. Emotion. Amygdala. Prefrontal cortex Psychopathy is a common and severe psychopathological disorder affecting approximately 1 % of the general population and 15 %-25 % of incarcerated male offenders (Hare, 1996; Neumann & Hare, 2008). Despite psychopathic individuals' good intelligence and an absence of Axis I psychopathology (aside from substance abuse; Hart & Hare, 1989), they display an inability to form genuine relationships with parents, teachers, friends, or lovers; limited and superficial affective processing, especially with respect to anticipatory anxiety and remorse; an impulsive behavioral style involving a general failure to evaluate anticipated actions and inhibit the inappropriate ones; and a chronic antisocial lifestyle that entails great costs to society as well as for the affected individual (e.g., incarceration; Cleckley, 1941). Although both affective and behavioral characteristics are important elements of psychopathy, the affective deficits have traditionally been considered the root cause of the psychopath's problems. Affective deficits in psychopathy have most often been understood in the context of the low-fear model (Lykken, 1957), which posits that the psychopath's deficit is mediated by an amygdala-based deficiency (Blair, 2003; Marsh & Cardinale, in press; Patrick, 1994; Viding et al., 2012). In adult samples, whereas some neuroimaging evidence has suggested that psychopathic individuals display less amygdala activation than controls during aversive conditioning, moral decision-making, social cooperation, and memory for emotionally salient words (
Psychopathy, Moral Understanding and Criminal Responsibility
In Scotland and England individuals cannot be relieved from criminal responsibility on the basis that they have psychopathic personality disorder. The insanity defence in England is due to be reformed and, if the Law Commission's proposals are implemented, it is likely that psychopaths will continue to be excluded from that defence. However, some philosophers and neuroscientists have argued that psychopaths should be entitled to a defence, as psychopathy can undermine a person's ability to understand the wrongfulness of criminal conduct. This article will focus on empirical evidence, including findings from neuroscience, which lends some support to this argument. It will argue that brain scans, autonomic testing, interviews and cognitive tests suggest that psychopaths' moral reasoning is impaired. Such evidence should be placed before the jury so that the jury can decide on a case-by-case basis whether individuals with psychopathy should be relieved from criminal responsibility.
Utilitarian moral judgment in psychopathy. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci
2016
Psychopathic behavior is characteristically amoral, but to date research studies have largely failed to identify any systematic differences in moral judgment capability between psychopaths and non-psychopaths. In this study, we investigate whether significant differences in moral judgment emerge when taking into account the phenotypic heterogeneity of the disorder through a well-validated distinction between psychopathic subtypes. Three groups of incarcerated participants [low-anxious psychopaths (n12), high-anxious psychopaths (n 12) and non-psychopaths (n24)] completed a moral judgment test involving hypothet-ical dilemmas. The moral dilemmas featured personal (i.e. involving direct physical harm) or impersonal (i.e. involving indirect or remote harm) actions. Compared to non-psychopaths, both groups of psychopaths were significantly more likely to endorse the impersonal actions. However, only the low-anxious psychopaths were significantly more likely to endorse the personal harms...
An Exploration of Psychopathy as a Neuroscience Construct
2018
Hare’s psychopathy construct as defined by the Psychopathy ChecklistRevised has been utilized internationally as a risk assessment instrument for quite some time. Despite this, since its inception it has and continues to raise criticism from the academic community. There is ongoing debate over what the construct entails and how it should be used. Most recent developments in the construct revolve around it being defined as a neurological manifestation. To explore the psychopathy construct’s connection with neuroscience, this thesis focusses on one foundational experiment by the most prominent team of researchers in the field. The exploration borrows from Science and Technology Studies, more specifically Actor-Network Theory and the semiotic of scientific texts. The goal of this analysis is not to criticize nor defend the psychopathy construct, but rather explore the facticity of psychopathy as a neuroscientific fact. Considering the widespread use of the construct across criminal jus...
A large body of evidence supports the view that psychopathy is associated with anomalous emotional processing, reduced guilt and empathy, which are important risk factors for criminal behaviors. However, the precise nature and specificity of this atypical emotional processing is not well understood, including its relation to moral judgment. To further our understanding of the pattern of neural response to perceiving and evaluating morally-laden behavior, the current study included 155 criminal male offenders with various level of psychopathy, as assessed with the Psychopathy Check List-Revised (PCL-R). Participants were scanned while viewing short clips depicting interactions between two individuals resulting in either interpersonal harm or interpersonal assistance. After viewing each clip, they were asked to identify the emotions of the protagonists. Inmates with high levels of psychopathy were more accurate than controls in successfully identifying the emotion of the recipient of both helpful and harmful actions. Significant hemodynamic differences were detected in the posterior superior temporal sulcus, amygdala, insula, ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex when individuals with high psychopathy viewed negative versus positive scenarios moral scenarios and when they evaluated the emotional responses of the protagonists. These findings suggest that socioemotional processing abnormalities in psychopathy may be somewhat more complicated than merely a general or specific emotional deficit. Rather, situation-specific evaluations of the mental states of others, in conjunction with sensitivity to the nature of the other (victim vs. perpetrator), modulate attention to emotion-related cues. Such atypical processing likely impacts moral decision-making and behavior in psychopaths.
Frontiers in psychology, 2017
Neuroscience has identified brain structures and functions that correlate with psychopathic tendencies. Since psychopathic traits can be traced back to physical neural attributes, it has been argued that psychopaths are not truly responsible for their actions and therefore should not be blamed for their psychopathic behaviors. This experimental research aims to evaluate what effect communicating this theory of psychopathy has on the moral behavior of lay people. If psychopathy is blamed on the brain, people may feel less morally responsible for their own psychopathic tendencies and therefore may be more likely to display those tendencies. An online study will provide participants with false feedback about their psychopathic traits supposedly based on their digital footprint (i.e., Facebook likes), thus classifying them as having either above-average or below-average psychopathic traits and describing psychopathy in cognitive or neurobiological terms. This particular study will asses...
Successful and unsuccessful psychopaths: A neurobiological model
Behavioral sciences & the law, 2010
Despite increasing interest in psychopathy research, surprisingly little is known about the etiology of non-incarcerated, successful psychopaths. This review provides an analysis of current knowledge on the similarities and differences between successful and unsuccessful psychopaths derived from five population sources: community samples, individuals from employment agencies, college students, industrial psychopaths, and serial killers. An initial neurobiological model of successful and unsuccessful psychopathy is outlined. It is hypothesized that successful psychopaths have intact or enhanced neurobiological functioning that underlies their normal or even superior cognitive functioning, which in turn helps them to achieve their goals using more covert and nonviolent methods. In contrast, in unsuccessful, caught psychopaths, brain structural and functional impairments together with autonomic nervous system dysfunction are hypothesized to underlie cognitive and emotional deficits and more overt violent offending.