Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Increased DLPFC activity during moral decision-making in psychopathy

Molecular Psychiatry volume 14, pages 909–911 (2009)Cite this article

Tassy et al.1 inquire as to whether psychopathy was associated with differential activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in our study of moral decision-making in psychopathy.2 This is an important question that we had not considered previously. Tassy et al.1 also ask about behavioral responding and activity in another relevant brain region, the insula. Here we provide additional analyses of our data. We find that psychopathy is associated with increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during emotional moral decision-making. No significant relationship was observed between psychopathy and behavioral responses to the dilemmas. These findings, in conjunction with the reduced activity in emotion-related regions reported previously,2 suggest that psychopathic individuals may use alternative strategies to make moral judgments; alternative interpretations are also discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

References

  1. Tassy S, Oullier O, Cermolacce M, Wicker B . Mol Psychiatry, (this issue).

  2. Glenn AL, Raine A, Schug RA . Mol Psychiatry 2009; 14: 5–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Greene JD, Nystrom LE, Engell AD, Darley JM, Cohen J . Neuron 2004; 44: 389–400.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Greene JD, Sommerville RB, Nystrom LE, Darley JM, Cohen J . Science 2001; 293: 2105–2108.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Moll J, de Oliveira-Sousa R . Trends Cogn Sci 2007; 11: 319–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Koenigs M, Young L, Adolphs R, Tranel D, Cushman F, Hauser M et al. Nature 2007; 446: 908.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Young L, Glenn AL, Hauser M, Raine A, Schug R . Manuscript in preparation (unpublished data).

  8. Kiehl KA, Smith AM, Hare RD, Mendrek A, Forster BB, Brink J . Biol Psychiatry 2001; 50: 677–684.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Rilling JK, Glenn AL, Jairam MR, Pagnoni G, Goldsmith DR, Elfenbein HA et al. Biol Psychiatry 2007; 61: 1260–1271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Gordon HL, Baird AA, End A . Biol Psychiatry 2004; 56: 516–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Raine A, Yang Y . Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2006; 1: 203–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Huebner B, Dwyer S, Hauser M . Trends Cogn Sci 2009; 13: 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    A L Glenn

  2. Departments of Criminology, Psychiatry, and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    A Raine

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    R A Schug

  4. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    L Young

  5. Departments of Psychology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Biological Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    M Hauser

Authors
  1. A L Glenn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A Raine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. R A Schug
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. L Young
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M Hauser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A L Glenn.

Additional information

Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Molecular Psychiatry website (http://www.nature.com/mp)

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Glenn, A., Raine, A., Schug, R. et al. Increased DLPFC activity during moral decision-making in psychopathy. Mol Psychiatry 14, 909–911 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2009.76

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2009.76

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links