Rationale: Stimulant use is a significant and prevalent problem, particularly in criminal populations. Previous studies found that cocaine and methamphetamine use is related to impairment in identifying emotions and empathy. Stimulant users also have abnormal neural structure and function of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), amygdala, and anterior (ACC) and posterior cingulate (PCC), regions implicated in moral decision-making. However, no research has studied the neural correlates of stimulant use and explicit moral processing in an incarcerated population.
Objectives: Here, we examine how stimulant use affects sociomoral processing that might contribute to antisocial behavior. We predicted that vmPFC, amygdala, PCC, and ACC would show abnormal neural response during a moral processing task in incarcerated methamphetamine and cocaine users.
Methods: Incarcerated adult males (N = 211) were scanned with a mobile MRI system while completing a moral decision-making task. Lifetime drug use was assessed. Neural responses during moral processing were compared between users and non-users. The relationship between duration of use and neural function was also examined.
Results: Incarcerated stimulant users showed less amygdala engagement than non-users during moral processing. Duration of stimulant use was negatively associated with activity in ACC and positively associated with vmPFC response during moral processing.
Conclusions: These results suggest a dynamic pattern of fronto-limbic moral processing related to stimulant use with deficits in both central motive and cognitive integration elements of biological moral processes theory. This increases our understanding of how drug use relates to moral processing in the brain in an ultra-high-risk population.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-016-4344-4 | DOI Listing |
Adv Simul (Lond)
December 2024
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
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December 2024
Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Background: Learner agency involves students actively engaging in their learning process and shaping their educational experiences through autonomy, self-regulation, and decision-making. In professional education, particularly within health professions, learner agency is critical for fostering adaptability and lifelong learning. This scoping review explores how learner agency, alongside concepts such as self-regulated learning and self-directed learning, is addressed in undergraduate dental education, aiming to understand its implications and strategies for enhancing student agency in this context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Med Educ
December 2024
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Context: The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in numbers of patients dying at home in the UK, meaning that general practitioners (GPs) were exposed to more patient death than would be pre-COVID. This project aimed to gain insight into GP trainees' experiences of patient death between March and July 2020. This insight can inform support for GPs, leading to improved wellbeing, workforce retention and ultimately, better patient-centred care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCogn Neurodyn
December 2024
Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
In human perceptual decision-making, the speed-accuracy tradeoff establishes a causal link between urgency and reduced accuracy. Less is known about how speed relates to the subjective evaluation of visual images. Here, we conducted a set of four experiments to tease apart two alternative hypotheses for the relation between speed and subjective evaluation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Med Ethics
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Bioethics Consulting, Brno, Czechia, Czechia.
Background: The primary objective of this study was to conduct a comprehensive questionnaire survey on the practices of research ethics committees reviewing academic research projects in Czechia. The study aims to provide an unbiased and objective assessment of the current practices of research ethics committees, namely to obtain the missing data on their functioning in the context of academic research, to identify difficulties and shortages that threaten the responsible functioning of research ethics committees in the country and to investigate the implementation of Additional Protocol on Biomedical Research CETS No. 195 in their practice.
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