Corticostriatal Circuits in Psychopathy and Moral Decision-Making: An Integrative Review in Functional Neuroanatomy

Abstract

Psychopathy is a highly complex clinical and forensic construct characterized by persistent patterns of emotional callousness, lack of remorse, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior. In recent decades, substantial advances in neuroscience have demonstrated that these characteristics are not limited to the behavioral domain, but reflect dysfunctions in specific neural circuits, especially in the cortico-striatal pathways involved in emotional processing, motivation, reward, punishment, and moral decision-making. This study conducted an integrative review of 23 articles published between 2015 and 2025 with the aim of critically analyzing the neuroanatomical evidence related to psychopathy and its impacts on moral cognition. The results demonstrate a consistent pattern of hypoactivity of the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, coupled with hyper-responsiveness of the ventral striatum, configuring a functional imbalance that compromises both aversive learning and reward processing. It is concluded that such structural and functional alterations constitute the neurobiological basis of utilitarian moral judgments, low affective empathy, and impulsivity observed in individuals with psychopathic traits. The findings point to the need for integrative models that articulate neuroscience, moral psychology, and criminology.