Naslov
Executive functions on psychopathic offenders: consequences for responsibility and autonomy

Autori
Malatesti, Luca ; Jurjako, Marko

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy 7th BIENNIAL MEETING

Mjesto i datum
Antwerpen, Belgija, 21.05.2017. - 24.05.2017

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Psychopathy ; executive function ; autonomy

Sažetak
Philosophers, legal scholars, and cognitive scientists have contributed to the debate on the appropriate social response to the psychopathic offenders. Two main lines of investigations appear to characterise the discussion. Many have focussed on the question whether these individuals are legally (Kiehl & ; Sinnott- Armstrong, 2013) or morally (Malatesti and McMillan, 2010) responsible for their crimes. Some have investigated the ethically justifiable forms of intervention or treatment (e.g., Glannon, 2014 ; Maibom). We argue that the current neuropsychological data on psychopathy and their principal theoretical interpretations do not authorise any firm conclusion about the criminal responsibility of the psychopathic offender. Several standard legal accounts of criminal responsibility, as some philosophical accounts of moral responsibility, require that the agent should have certain executive capacities that are expressed in folk- psychological terms. Executive functions seem to be appropriate neuropsychological correlates or preconditions for these folk-psychological capacities (Hirstein & ; Sifferd, 2010) . Leading accounts, such as the affect-based (Blair, 2006 ; Kiehl, 2006) , the attention based (Hiatt & ; Newman, 2006 ; Larson, et al., 2013 ; Newman, et al., 2010) , and data on error processing in psychopaths (Brazil, et al., 2009 ; Brazil, et al., 2011 ; Brazil I. A., 2013 ; von Borries, et al., 2010) , indicate peculiar executive functions. But we contend that this peculiarity offers no sufficient grounds for exculpation. To reach this conclusion, we analyse philosophically the notions of incapacity that are contemplated in legal requirements for insanity defences and how they relate with the performances of psychopaths in the relevant experimental paradigms. We maintain, however, that the peculiarities of the executive functions in psychopaths might undermine their autonomy. Standardly, a person is autonomous when she has “a capacity to judge, decide, and act on the basis of her own attitudes and reasoning” (Blöser, Schöpf, & ; Willa, 2010, p. 240) . Autonomous action, importantly, involves appropriate responsiveness to evidence and processing of action-relevant information (Blöser, Schöpf, & ; Willa, 2010 ; Weimer, 2013) . The reviewed studies seem to indicate responsiveness and processing of action-relevant information deficits in psychopaths. Thus, these deficits might be regarded as autonomy undermining. We argue, thus, that, at least prima facie, ethical justification for subjecting criminal psychopaths to enhancement therapies. In this respect, there are some indication that behavioural and neurofeedback interventions might be the ethically viable means to overcoming these autonomy-undermining deficits (Baskin-Sommers, Curtin, & ; Newman, 2015 ; Konicar, et al., 2015) . References Baskin-Sommers, A. R., Curtin, J. J., & ; Newman, J. P. (2015). Altering the Cognitive- affective Dysfunctions of Psychopathic and Externalizing Offender Subtypes with Cognitive Remediation. Clinical Psychological Science, 3, 45–57. Blair, R. J. (2006). Subcortical Brain Systems in Psychopathy: The Amygdala. In C. J. Patrick (Ed.), Handbook of Psychopathy (pp. 296-312). New York: The Guilford Press. Blöser, C., Schöpf, A., & ; Willa, M. (2010). Autonomy, experience, and reflection: On a neglected aspect of personal autonomy. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 13, 239- 253. Brazil, I. A. (2013). Psychopathy-related Traits and the Use of Reward and Social Information: A Computational Approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1-11. Brazil, I. A., de Bruijn, E. R., Bulten, B. H., von Borries, A. K., van Lankveld, J. J., Buitelaar, J. K., & ; al., e. (2009). Early and Late Components of Error Monitoring in Violent Offenders with Psychopathy. Biological Psychiatry, 65, 137-143. Brazil, I. A., Mars, R. B., Bulten, B. H., Buitelaar, J. K., Verkes, R. J., & ; De Bruijn, E. R. (2011). A Neurophysiological Dissociation Between Monitoring One' s Own and Others' Actions in Psychopathy. Biological Psychiatry, 69, 693–699. Glannon, W. (2014). Intervening in the psychopath’s brain. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 35, 43-57. Hiatt, K. D., & ; Newman, J. P. (2006). Understanding Psychopathy: The Cognitive Side. In C. J. Patrick (Ed.), Handbook of Psychopathy (pp. 334–352). New York: The Guilford Press. Hirstein, W., & ; Sifferd, K. (2010). The Legal Self: Executive Processes and Legal Theory. Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 156–171. Kiehl, K. A. (2006). A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective on Psychopathy: Evidence for Paralimibic System Dysfunction. Psychiatry Research, 142, 107–128. Kiehl, K. A., & ; Sinnott-Armstrong, W. P. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook on Psychopathy and Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Konicar, L., Veit, R., Eisenbarth, H., Barth, B., Tonin, P., Strehl, U., & ; Birbaumer, N. (2015). Brain Self-regulation in Criminal Psychopaths. Scientific Reports 5 , Article number: 9426 . Larson, C. L., Baskin-Sommers, A. R., Stout, D. M., Balderston, N. L., Curtin, J. J., Schultz, D. H., . . . Newman, J. P. (2013). The Interplay of Attention and Emotion: Top-down Attention Modulates Amygdala Activation in Psychopathy. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 757–770. Maibom, H. L. (n.d.). To treat a psychopath. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 35, 31-42. Malatesti, L., & ; McMillan, J. (Eds.). (2010). Responsibility and Psychopathy: Interfacing Law, Psychiatry and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Newman, J. P., Curtin, J. J., Bertsch, J. D., & ; Baskin-Sommers, A. R. (2010). Attention Moderates the Fearlessness of Psychopathic Offenders. Biological Psychiatry, 67, 66–70. von Borries, A. K., Brazil, I. A., Bulten, B. H., Buitelaar, J. K., Verkes, R. J., & ; de Bruijn, E. R. (2010). Neural Correlates of Error-related Learning Deficits in Individuals with Psychopathy. Psychological Medicine, 40, 1559-1568. Weimer, S. (2013). Evidence-responsiveness and autonomy. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 16, 621-642.

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Engleski

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