Psychopathy is a personality disorder comprised of interpersonal, affective and behavioral characteristics that contribute to a lifestyle defined by social transgressions directed against others. These social transgressions are often described as 'moral violations', or harmful actions such as stealing or causing physical or emotional injury that are committed intentionally and without concern for the pain and suffering caused to others. It has been suggested that the morally insensitive tendencies of the psychopathic individual may stem, in part, from the general lack of emotional reactivity that characterizes psychopathic personality. Psychopathic individuals show decreased autonomic reactivity when viewing others in distress (Blair, 1999) and reduced activity in brain regions associated with emotional processing when viewing emotional stimuli (Kiehl et al., 2001). A recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) pilot study conducted by the applicant found that self reported psychopathic traits in healthy controls were negatively associated with activity in medial prefrontal cortex, a brain region implicated in the integration of emotion and decision making, while individuals made decisions regarding the severity of visually depicted moral violations. The goal of the proposed research is to extend these findings regarding subclinical psychopathy to individuals diagnosed with psychopathy. This research will expand on prior morality research by integrating fMRI and event-related potential (ERP) investigations of moral processing in psychopathic and non-psychopathic individuals. The MIND Institute has acquired a mobile MRI scanner dedicated for use with incarcerated populations, providing an unprecedented opportunity to examine neurocognitive systems underlying moral processing in incarcerated psychopaths. Given that the societal cost of psychopathy rivals those of other major mental illnesses of similar prevalence, and the general threat posed to society based on the predatory nature of the psychopathic individual, there is considerable benefit to be gained by identifying neural dysfunction in psychopathy that contributes to amoral behavior. This research may, for instance, identify neural markers of amoral behavior that can be targeted with therapeutic techniques.
| Harenski, Carla L; Harenski, Keith A; Shane, Matthew S et al. (2010) Aberrant neural processing of moral violations in criminal psychopaths. J Abnorm Psychol 119:863-74 |
| Harenski, Carla L; Antonenko, Olga; Shane, Matthew S et al. (2010) A functional imaging investigation of moral deliberation and moral intuition. Neuroimage 49:2707-16 |
