Autistic and Psychopathic Traits among a Community-based Sample of Adults

Barnard‐Brak, Lucy; Richman, David M.

doi:10.1080/01639625.2019.1706357

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Fourth, while primary psychopathy had only a low level of openness in common with the autistic trait, secondary psychopathy and the autistic trait had many more commonalities (high neuroticism and trait anxiety, low extraversion). This points to overall socio-affective impairments and antisocial tendencies in the phenotype of both dimensions and common social deficits that also have been suggested in previous reports [ 88 ]. Secondary psychopathy however showed additional associations with low conscientiousness, negative affective balance, and high depression scores [ 82 ], indicating that their psychopathological status can be more severe than in individuals with autistic traits.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Psychopathic and autistic traits differentially influence the neural mechanisms of social cognition from communication signals

et al. 2022

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Psychopathy is associated with severe deviations in social behavior and cognition. While previous research described such cognitive and neural alterations in the processing of rather specific social information from human expressions, some open questions remain concerning central and differential neurocognitive deficits underlying psychopathic behavior. Here we investigated three rather unexplored factors to explain these deficits, first, by assessing psychopathy subtypes in social cognition, second, by investigating the discrimination of social communication sounds (speech, non-speech) from other non-social sounds, and third, by determining the neural overlap in social cognition impairments with autistic traits, given potential common deficits in the processing of communicative voice signals. The study was exploratory with a focus on how psychopathic and autistic traits differentially influence the function of social cognitive and affective brain networks in response to social voice stimuli. We used a parametric data analysis approach from a sample of 113 participants (47 male, 66 female) with ages ranging between 18 and 40 years (mean 25.59, SD 4.79). Our data revealed four important findings. First, we found a phenotypical overlap between secondary but not primary psychopathy with autistic traits. Second, primary psychopathy showed various neural deficits in neural voice processing nodes (speech, non-speech voices) and in brain systems for social cognition (mirroring, mentalizing, empathy, emotional contagion). Primary psychopathy also showed deficits in the basal ganglia (BG) system that seems specific to the social decoding of communicative voice signals. Third, neural deviations in secondary psychopathy were restricted to social mirroring and mentalizing impairments, but with additional and so far undescribed deficits at the level of auditory sensory processing, potentially concerning deficits in ventral auditory stream mechanisms (auditory object identification). Fourth, high autistic traits also revealed neural deviations in sensory cortices, but rather in the dorsal auditory processing streams (communicative context encoding). Taken together, social cognition of voice signals shows considerable deviations in psychopathy, with differential and newly described deficits in the BG system in primary psychopathy and at the neural level of sensory processing in secondary psychopathy. These deficits seem especially triggered during the social cognition from vocal communication signals.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Psychopathic and autistic traits differentially influence the neural mechanisms of social cognition from communication signals

et al. 2022

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“…However, the authors of one study reported no significant correlation between autistic symptoms and CUTs in diagnosed autistic boys (25). In adults, the positive relationship between autistic and psychopathic traits was generally attenuated relative to children (66,75) or not found (70,71). This was also observed in adults with autism and intellectual disability (65).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Several studies commented on the correlation between psychopathy and autism, with wide variation in the source of participants, measures, and methodology and all administering self-reports of psychopathic and autistic traits. In community samples, Barnard-Brak and Richman ( 66 ), reported a weak but significant positive corelation, r = .19, whilst other studies reported no significant correlation ( 70 , 71 ). No correlation was found between autistic and psychopathic traits in a forensic setting ( 71 ).…”

Section: Autism and Psychopathy In Adultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Barnard-Brak and Richman ( 66 ) looked at the prevalence of autistic and psychopathic traits amongst a community sample (N = 723) without a diagnosis of autism, finding that 10% met screening cut off to indicate autistic traits and 12% met screening cut off to indicate psychopathic traits; 30% of the autistic trait group also meet criteria for psychopathic traits. The study relied on brief self-report measures of autistic [AQ-10; ( 79 )] and psychopathic traits =[Dirty Dozen Scale; ( 82 )], which are not diagnostic, and findings should be viewed in the context this limitation.…”

Section: Autism and Psychopathy In Adultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relationship between psychopathy and autism: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Maguire,

Warman,

Blumenfeld

et al. 2024

Front. Psychiatry

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Background and methodsThe aim of this systematic review was to synthesise research examining the relationship between autism and psychopathy to: (a) better understand the relationship between these two constructs, and (b) describe the clinical manifestation of the two when they co-occur. A systematic search of the literature returned 36 studies.ResultsAcross all ages, autistic individuals and those with elevated autistic traits but no autistic diagnoses appeared to have increased callous and unemotional traits or psychopathy relative to the general population. Several studies evidenced that although both constructs are associated with empathetic dysfunction, the underlying mechanisms differ. In adults, psychopathy/psychopathic traits were associated with diminished affective empathy and intact cognitive empathy, whilst the opposite was seen autistic adults and those with elevated autistic traits. In children, those with autistic traits or a diagnosis of autism had diminished cognitive empathy, but not affective empathy, while the relationship between callous and unemotional traits/psychopathy and empathy amongst children was less clear. The co-occurrence of autism and psychopathy was seen to lead to additional empathic and cognitive impairment, but findings were mixed making it challenging to clearly describe the clinical manifestation.ConclusionThere remains a paucity of research investigating the interaction between autism and psychopathy and included studies were characterised by multiple measurement difficulties. Attention should be directed toward developing better methods for identifying psychopathic traits in autistic individuals to advance our understanding of the relationship between autism and psychopathy to allow for the development of appropriate care pathways for this population.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=413672, identifier CRD42023413672.

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Do autism and psychopathy co‐occur? A systematic review and clinical discussion

Murphy,

Walker,

Broyd

2024

Criminal Behav Ment Health

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BackgroundAlthough the prevalence is unknown, psychopathy can be a possible co‐occurring condition associated with autism especially among forensic populations. However, the relationship between these two conditions remains poorly understood.AimsTo carry out a systematic review of the available literature exploring the relationship between autism and psychopathy.MethodsA systematic literature review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines using terms for autism and psychopathy to search the literature databases Scopus, Pubmed, Web of Science, ASSIA, APA Psych Info, Medline and EMBASE from 1980 to March 2024. For inclusion, we required that a recognised measure of autism and psychopathy or associated features of the latter had been used.ResultsOf the 4230 potential articles identified, 37 met the selection criteria. Insufficient and inconsistent methodologies for data pooling meant that a narrative analysis was used. Although there is some overlap, four broad themes emerged relating to (1) assessment and frequency of co‐occurrence, (2) behavioural and neurophysiological expressions of empathy, (3) behavioural contagion effects, mirroring, mimicry and other linking mechanisms and (4) emotional face perception and theory of mind characteristics. Within these areas there are some specific differences between the two conditions. However, the research to date examining the relationship between autism and psychopathy has mostly been with children and males, carried out with non‐clinical non‐forensic populations, as well as using self‐report measures and parental ratings. Prior research has also largely focused on looking for differences between these conditions rather than co‐occurrence.ConclusionThis review outlines a case for considering autism and psychopathy as distinct, but potentially co‐occurring conditions and highlights the need for more research into how the two conditions interact with clinical populations. There also appears to be a need for guidelines on when and how to assess psychopathy with autistic individuals and a better understanding of the therapeutic needs and factors influencing the long‐term outcomes of autistic individuals who may also present with co‐occurring psychopathy.

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Autistic and Psychopathic Traits among a Community-based Sample of Adults

Cited by 3 publications

References 28 publications

Psychopathic and autistic traits differentially influence the neural mechanisms of social cognition from communication signals

Psychopathic and autistic traits differentially influence the neural mechanisms of social cognition from communication signals

The relationship between psychopathy and autism: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Do autism and psychopathy co‐occur? A systematic review and clinical discussion

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