The pupil has been shown to be sensitive to the emotional content of stimuli. We examined this phenomenon by comparing fearful and neutral images carefully matched in the domains of luminance, image contrast, image color, and complexity of content. The pupil was more dilated after viewing affective pictures, and this effect was (a) shown to be independent of the presentation time of the images (from 100–3,000 ms), (b) not diminished by repeated presentations of the images, and (c) not affected by actively naming the emotion of the stimuli in comparison to passive viewing. Our results show that the emotional modulation of the pupil is present over a range of variables that typically vary from study to study (image duration, number of trials, free viewing vs. task), and encourages the use of pupillometry as a measure of emotional processing in populations where alternative techniques may not be appropriate.
Psychopathic individuals are considered to be impulsive, but impulsivity is a multifaceted construct (including positive and negative urgency, lack of planning, lack of perseverance, sensation seeking). We investigated the relationships between the Triarchic Psychopathy Model (TriPM), conceptualising psychopathy in terms of: Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition, and UPPS-P Impulsivity. Prison and community participants were examined to assess for consistency in relationships between psychopathic traits and impulsivity across these samples. Boldness related to high sensation seeking, but to low negative urgency and strong perseverance. Disinhibition related to high levels of negative/ positive urgency, and poor planning. Meanness was linked to most forms of impulsivity. While the samples showed small differences (higher Sensation Seeking for the community sample, and greater TriPM Disinhibition for the offenders), there were no differences in the relationships between TriPM and UPPS-P. The findings support the dimensional model of psychopathy and demonstrate that some aspects of psychopathy are related to reduced impulsivity. This might explain why some psychopathic offenders are able to commit instrumental violence or criminal behaviour that requires a high level of planning and persistence. March 29 th , 2017 Dear Editor, Thank you for the comments to our paper. We have made the changes requested and have detailed them below. For your convenience we have italicized the comments of the reviewer and have typed our response in red below each one.
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