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Correspondence

Comment on Raine (2019) ‘The neuromoral theory of antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior’

[version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]
PUBLISHED 20 Apr 2020
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Abstract

Raine (2019) reviewed previous research on the neural correlates of antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior based on previous studies of neuroscience of morality. The author identified neural circutries associated with the aforementioned types of antisocial behaviors. However, in the review, Raine acknowledged a limitation in his arguments, the lack of evidence supporting the presence of the neural circutries. In this correspondence, I intend to show that this limitation can be addressed with additional evience from recent neuroimaging research and the evidence can support the presence of the neural circutiries of antisociality proposed by Raine.

Keywords

psychopathy, antisociality, morality, moral psychology, neuroscience

A review article by Raine was published in Psychiatry Research in 2019 concerning neuromoral theory of antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior1. The author proposed a comprehensive model of the neural network of morality and antisociality to explain the neural-level mechanisms of antisocial behavior. The author referred to previous neuroimaging studies and meta-analyses to identity the aforementioned neural networks and proposed that the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, insula, and anterior cingulate cortex are included in both networks, while the striatum is included in the antisociality network. The author stated two limitations regarding the network model that he proposed: first, the involvement of the insula and cingulate cortex regions in the neural networks could not be sufficiently supported by previous neuroimaging studies and meta-analyses; second, evidence that supports the involvement of the striatum in the morality network is insufficient.

Although Raine raised the aforementioned two concerns regarding the lack of supporting evidence, I suggest that recent research in the field of social neuroscience can address them. Herein, I introduce two supporting findings, one from online-based large-scale analysis of neuroimaging data, and the other from recent neuroimaging experiments focusing on brain circuitries associated with morality. These recent research findings will be able to provide evidence of the involvement of the insula, cingulate cortex, and striatum regions in the neuromoral circuits.

First, a result from large-scale meta-analysis of previous neuroimaging studies provides evidence supporting Raine’s model. Thanks to the development of information technology, performing meta-analysis of large-scale neuroimaging data has become feasible. A recently invented web-based meta-analysis tool, NeuroSynth, is one example2. NeuroSynth automatically gathers coordinate information that is reported in published neuroimaging articles and performs meta-analysis of the gathered information. A result from a meta-analysis of 87 studies and 2,806 activation foci that are associated with a keyword “moral” demonstrates that the left insula and anterior and posterior cingulate cortices show significant common activity across moral task conditions (see http://neurosynth.org/analyses/terms/moral/ for further details). This result provides evidence that supports the involvement of the insula and cingulate cortices in the neural network of morality based on large-scale data. In fact, the three meta-analysis articles that Raine reviewed meta-analyzed relatively fewer numbers of neuroimaging studies (references35), so he could only tentatively propose the involvement of the insula and cingulate cortex regions in the neuromoral network. Hence, I suggest that the Raine’s argument is supported by large-scale neuroimaging data and the result from NeuroSynth analysis. Moreover, the reported involvement of the left insula may suggest the possibility of laterality effects that Raine mentioned in his review, although more research that directly focuses on the laterality effects should be conducted.

Second, recent neuroimaging studies by my research group68 suggest that the insula and striatum regions showed significant activation and interaction with prefrontal and cingulate regions, which were indicated as core regions in the neural network of morality by Raine, in moral task conditions. The author tentatively proposed that increasing evidence may suggest that the striatum can be included in the morality network as well as the antisociality network. The new neuroimaging studies may provide additional evidence that supports the involvement of the striatum in the morality network. Our neuroimaging study from 20146 reported that the insula, cingulate cortex, and striatum (e.g. caudate and putamen) were significantly activated when participants were solving moral dilemmas (see Table S1 in 6 for further details). Such findings were also supported by a recent reanalysis with Bayesian inference7. Furthermore, our study from 20168 conducted psychophysiological interaction analysis and connectivity analysis based on Granger causality to examine interactions and connections among brain regions in moral task conditions. This study reported that the insula and striatum regions significantly interacted and were connected with other morality-related regions including the medial prefrontal and cingulate cortices. I suggest these findings can also support Raine’s argument regarding the role of the insula in the neural network of morality as well as his tentative proposal regarding the involvement of the striatum in the same network. In particular, the second study7 provides more direct evidence that supports the presence of the network because it used analysis methods that were designed to examine interaction and connectivity between different brain regions.

Given the aforementioned additional large-scale analysis and neuroimaging studies, the insula, cingulate cortex, and striatum regions can be considered as parts of the neural network of morality. I conclude that Raine’s argument about the neural network of antisociality that he proposed, with some reservations due to lack of evidence, can be well supported by the analyses that I introduce here.

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VERSION 2 PUBLISHED 20 Apr 2020
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Han H. Comment on Raine (2019) ‘The neuromoral theory of antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior’ [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]. F1000Research 2020, 9:274 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.23346.1)
NOTE: If applicable, it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
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Key to Reviewer Statuses VIEW
ApprovedThe paper is scientifically sound in its current form and only minor, if any, improvements are suggested
Approved with reservations A number of small changes, sometimes more significant revisions are required to address specific details and improve the papers academic merit.
Not approvedFundamental flaws in the paper seriously undermine the findings and conclusions
Version 1
VERSION 1
PUBLISHED 20 Apr 2020
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Reviewer Report 15 Jul 2020
Fernando Barbosa, Laboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal 
Approved with Reservations
VIEWS 15
The author sought to provide additional support concerning the neuronal bases of the neuromoral model of antisocial behavior, initially proposed by Raine and Yang (2006) and recently updated by Raine (2019), who reviewed findings on brain mechanisms underlying moral decision-making ... Continue reading
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CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Barbosa F. Reviewer Report For: Comment on Raine (2019) ‘The neuromoral theory of antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior’ [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]. F1000Research 2020, 9:274 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.25769.r65587)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
  • Author Response 21 Jul 2020
    Hyemin Han, Educational Psychology Program, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA
    21 Jul 2020
    Author Response
    1. Although the NeuroSynth-based meta-analysis involved 87 studies, it should be noted that: (a) the NeuroSynth performs a semantic search limited to the abstracts of the papers; (b) many of ... Continue reading
COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT
  • Author Response 21 Jul 2020
    Hyemin Han, Educational Psychology Program, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA
    21 Jul 2020
    Author Response
    1. Although the NeuroSynth-based meta-analysis involved 87 studies, it should be noted that: (a) the NeuroSynth performs a semantic search limited to the abstracts of the papers; (b) many of ... Continue reading
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14
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Reviewer Report 07 Jul 2020
Pascal Molenberghs, Institute for Social Neuroscience (ISN Psychology), Melbourne, Vic, Australia 
Not Approved
VIEWS 14
The author provides a comment on a recently published article by Raine (2019) which is about a neuromodal theory of antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior.
 
Major comments:
 
The author makes two main claims: ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Molenberghs P. Reviewer Report For: Comment on Raine (2019) ‘The neuromoral theory of antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior’ [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]. F1000Research 2020, 9:274 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.25769.r64888)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
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15
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Reviewer Report 12 May 2020
Ji-Won Hur, Department of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea 
Approved
VIEWS 15
The current literature is a well written concise commentary. The title and the abstract precisely summarize the content of the article. The authors provided evidence supporting Raine’s model on the presence of the neural circuitry of antisociality. The concluding paragraph also clearly reflects the author's argument. This ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Hur JW. Reviewer Report For: Comment on Raine (2019) ‘The neuromoral theory of antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior’ [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]. F1000Research 2020, 9:274 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.25769.r62632)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
  • Author Response 21 Jul 2020
    Hyemin Han, Educational Psychology Program, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA
    21 Jul 2020
    Author Response
    Thank you very much for your kind comments. First of all, I corrected the typos in the manuscript that you mentioned. Second, following your suggestion and other reviewers' points, I ... Continue reading
COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT
  • Author Response 21 Jul 2020
    Hyemin Han, Educational Psychology Program, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA
    21 Jul 2020
    Author Response
    Thank you very much for your kind comments. First of all, I corrected the typos in the manuscript that you mentioned. Second, following your suggestion and other reviewers' points, I ... Continue reading

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Version 2
VERSION 2 PUBLISHED 20 Apr 2020
Comment
Alongside their report, reviewers assign a status to the article:
Approved - the paper is scientifically sound in its current form and only minor, if any, improvements are suggested
Approved with reservations - A number of small changes, sometimes more significant revisions are required to address specific details and improve the papers academic merit.
Not approved - fundamental flaws in the paper seriously undermine the findings and conclusions
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