Psychopathy and substance abuse are severe, co-morbid clinical disorders associated with significant civil and criminal disruption. Significant strides have been made in understanding how substance abuse and psychopathy predict institutional behavior, criminal recidivism, and treatment outcome. However, little is understood in terms of the neurobiology of these two disorders and how they interact. Psychopathy and substance abuse are commonly associated with impaired decision-making in general, moral decision-making in particular. The purpose of the present proposal is to examine the common and unique neural systems associated with moral decision-making in psychopathy and substance abuse. Structural and functional imaging methods will be used to map the neural architecture associated with processing linguistic and picture based moral decision-making paradigms in male offenders stratified by psychopathy scores and substance abuse measures. This research will utilize a mobile MRI system that will be deployed to prison facilities to collect representative samples of offenders with psychopathy and substance abuse problems. Detailed analyses of this sample will enable us to delineate the neurocognitive systems associated with impaired moral decision-making in psychopathy and substance abuse. This research may have a direct impact on the development of cognitive behavioral therapies designed to treat these conditions.
The societal cost of crime is $1.33 Trillion per year or $4400 per every man, woman, and child in the United States. Mental health and addiction disorders are some of the most common conditions associated with criminal behavior. This proposal seeks to understand the brain systems associated with moral decision-making in male offenders with mental health and addiction problems. This research is designed to help reduce the burden of mental health, addiction, and crime in society.
| Miskovich, Tara A; Anderson, Nathaniel E; Harenski, Carla L et al. (2018) Abnormal cortical gyrification in criminal psychopathy. Neuroimage Clin 19:876-882 |
| Anderson, Nathaniel E; Harenski, Keith A; Harenski, Carla L et al. (2018) Machine learning of brain gray matter differentiates sex in a large forensic sample. Hum Brain Mapp : |
| Crooks, Dana; Anderson, Nathaniel E; Widdows, Matthew et al. (2018) The relationship between cavum septum pellucidum and psychopathic traits in a large forensic sample. Neuropsychologia 112:95-104 |
| Espinoza, Flor A; Vergara, Victor M; Reyes, Daisy et al. (2018) Aberrant functional network connectivity in psychopathy from a large (N = 985) forensic sample. Hum Brain Mapp 39:2624-2634 |
| Korponay, Cole; Pujara, Maia; Deming, Philip et al. (2017) Impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits linked to increased volume and functional connectivity within prefrontal cortex. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 12:1169-1178 |
| Korponay, Cole; Kosson, David S; Decety, Jean et al. (2017) Brain Volume Correlates with Duration of Abstinence from Substance Abuse in a Region-Specific and Substance-Specific Manner. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging 2:626-635 |
| Korponay, Cole; Pujara, Maia; Deming, Philip et al. (2017) Impulsive-antisocial dimension of psychopathy linked to enlargement and abnormal functional connectivity of the striatum. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging 2:149-157 |
| Anderson, Nathaniel E; Steele, Vaughn R; Maurer, J Michael et al. (2017) Differentiating emotional processing and attention in psychopathy with functional neuroimaging. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 17:491-515 |
| Maurer, J Michael; Steele, Vaughn R; Edwards, Bethany G et al. (2016) Dysfunctional error-related processing in female psychopathy. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 11:1059-68 |
| Fede, Samantha J; Borg, Jana Schaich; Nyalakanti, Prashanth K et al. (2016) Distinct neuronal patterns of positive and negative moral processing in psychopathy. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 16:1074-1085 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 50 publications
