An ‘embedded brain’ approach to understanding antisocial behaviour

Essi Viding; Eamon McCrory; Arielle Baskin-Sommers; Stephane De Brito; Paul Frick

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.013

An ‘embedded brain’ approach to understanding antisocial behaviour

Essi Viding^*, Eamon McCrory, Arielle Baskin-Sommers, Stephane De Brito, Paul Frick

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

Antisocial behaviour (ASB) incurs substantial costs to the individual and society. Cognitive neuroscience has the potential to shed light on developmental risk for ASB, but it cannot achieve this potential in an ‘essentialist’ framework that focuses on the brain and cognition isolated from the environment. Here, we present the case for studying the social transactional and iterative unfolding of brain and cognitive development in a relational context. This approach, which we call the study of the ‘embedded brain’, is needed to fully understand how risk for ASB arises during development. Concentrated efforts are required to develop and unify methods to achieve this approach and reap the benefits for improved prevention and intervention of ASB.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	159-171
Number of pages	13
Journal	Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume	28
Issue number	2
Early online date	15 Sept 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.013
Publication status	Published - Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Harriet Phillips for her support in preparing the references. We acknowledge funding by the UK Medical Research Council (grant MR/V033905/1 to E.V. and E.M.) and Economic and Social Research Council (grant ES/V003526/1 to S.D.) during the writing of this manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Keywords

antisocial behaviour
brain
callous-unemotional traits
conduct problems
emotion
socio-emotional

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience

Access to Document

10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.013Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

VidingE2024EmbeddedFinal published version, 1.17 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Trait and State Impulsivity in Maltreated Children
Tino, P. & De Brito, S.
Economic & Social Research Council
4/12/21 → 30/11/24
Project: Research Councils

Cite this

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title = "An {\textquoteleft}embedded brain{\textquoteright} approach to understanding antisocial behaviour",

abstract = "Antisocial behaviour (ASB) incurs substantial costs to the individual and society. Cognitive neuroscience has the potential to shed light on developmental risk for ASB, but it cannot achieve this potential in an {\textquoteleft}essentialist{\textquoteright} framework that focuses on the brain and cognition isolated from the environment. Here, we present the case for studying the social transactional and iterative unfolding of brain and cognitive development in a relational context. This approach, which we call the study of the {\textquoteleft}embedded brain{\textquoteright}, is needed to fully understand how risk for ASB arises during development. Concentrated efforts are required to develop and unify methods to achieve this approach and reap the benefits for improved prevention and intervention of ASB.",

keywords = "antisocial behaviour, brain, callous-unemotional traits, conduct problems, emotion, socio-emotional",

author = "Essi Viding and Eamon McCrory and Arielle Baskin-Sommers and {De Brito}, Stephane and Paul Frick",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Harriet Phillips for her support in preparing the references. We acknowledge funding by the UK Medical Research Council (grant MR/V033905/1 to E.V. and E.M.) and Economic and Social Research Council (grant ES/V003526/1 to S.D.) during the writing of this manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors",

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doi = "10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.013",

language = "English",

volume = "28",

pages = "159--171",

journal = "Trends in Cognitive Sciences",

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AU - McCrory, Eamon

AU - Baskin-Sommers, Arielle

AU - De Brito, Stephane

AU - Frick, Paul

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Harriet Phillips for her support in preparing the references. We acknowledge funding by the UK Medical Research Council (grant MR/V033905/1 to E.V. and E.M.) and Economic and Social Research Council (grant ES/V003526/1 to S.D.) during the writing of this manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

PY - 2024/2

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N2 - Antisocial behaviour (ASB) incurs substantial costs to the individual and society. Cognitive neuroscience has the potential to shed light on developmental risk for ASB, but it cannot achieve this potential in an ‘essentialist’ framework that focuses on the brain and cognition isolated from the environment. Here, we present the case for studying the social transactional and iterative unfolding of brain and cognitive development in a relational context. This approach, which we call the study of the ‘embedded brain’, is needed to fully understand how risk for ASB arises during development. Concentrated efforts are required to develop and unify methods to achieve this approach and reap the benefits for improved prevention and intervention of ASB.

AB - Antisocial behaviour (ASB) incurs substantial costs to the individual and society. Cognitive neuroscience has the potential to shed light on developmental risk for ASB, but it cannot achieve this potential in an ‘essentialist’ framework that focuses on the brain and cognition isolated from the environment. Here, we present the case for studying the social transactional and iterative unfolding of brain and cognitive development in a relational context. This approach, which we call the study of the ‘embedded brain’, is needed to fully understand how risk for ASB arises during development. Concentrated efforts are required to develop and unify methods to achieve this approach and reap the benefits for improved prevention and intervention of ASB.

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KW - callous-unemotional traits

KW - conduct problems

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An ‘embedded brain’ approach to understanding antisocial behaviour

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Projects

Trait and State Impulsivity in Maltreated Children

Cite this