Anticipation of guilt for everyday moral transgressions: The role of the anterior insula and the influence of interpersonal psychopathic traits.
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterised by atypical moral behaviour likely rooted in atypical affective/motivational processing, as opposed to an inability to judge the wrongness of an action. Guilt is a moral emotion believed to play a crucial role in adherence to moral and social norms, but the mechanisms by which guilt (or lack thereof) may influence behaviour in individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits are unclear. We measured neural responses during the anticipation of guilt about committing potential everyday moral transgressions, and tested the extent to which these varied with psychopathic traits. We found a significant interaction between the degree to which anticipated guilt was modulated in the anterior insula and interpersonal psychopathic traits: anterior insula modulation of anticipated guilt was weaker in individuals with higher levels of these traits. Data from a second sample confirmed that this pattern of findings was specific to the modulation of anticipated guilt and not related to the perceived wrongness of the transgression. These results suggest a central role for the anterior insula in coding the anticipation of guilt regarding potential moral transgressions and advance our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms that may underlie propensity to antisocial behaviour.
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, UK.|Neuropsychophysiology Lab, CiPsi, University of Minho, Portugal.
Ana
A
Seara-Cardoso
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.
Catherine L
CL
Sebastian
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, UK.
Eamon
E
McCrory
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, UK.|Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK.
Lucy
L
Foulkes
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, UK.|Epsylon Laboratory, Montpellier University, France.
Marine
M
Buon
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK.
Jonathan P
JP
Roiser
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, UK.|Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK.
Essi
E
Viding
D000328:Adult; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult