Brain Structural Correlates of Emotion Recognition in Psychopaths

Abstract

Individuals with psychopathy present deficits in the recognition of facial emotional expressions. However, the nature and extent of these alterations are not fully understood. Furthermore, available data on the functional neural correlates of emotional face recognition deficits in adult psychopaths have provided mixed results. In this context, emotional face morphing tasks may be suitable for clarifying mild and emotion-specific impairments in psychopaths. Likewise, studies exploring corresponding anatomical correlates may be useful for disentangling available neurofunctional evidence based on the alleged neurodevelopmental roots of psychopathic traits. We used Voxel-Based Morphometry and a morphed emotional face expression recognition task to evaluate the relationship between regional gray matter (GM) volumes and facial emotion recognition deficits in male psychopaths. In comparison to male healthy controls, psychopaths showed deficits in the recognition of sad, happy and fear emotional expressions. In subsequent brain imaging analyses psychopaths with better recognition of facial emotional expressions showed higher volume in the prefrontal cortex (orbitofrontal, inferior frontal and dorsomedial prefrontal cortices), somatosensory cortex, anterior insula, cingulate cortex and the posterior lobe of the cerebellum. Amygdala and temporal lobe volumes contributed to better emotional face recognition in controls only. These findings provide evidence suggesting that variability in brain morphometry plays a role in accounting for psychopaths’ impaired ability to recognize emotional face expressions, and may have implications for comprehensively characterizing the empathy and social cognition dysfunctions typically observed in this population of subjects.

A Systematic Literature Review of Neuroimaging of Psychopathic Traits

“…Furthermore, a positive correlation between the anterior cingulate cortex volume and psychopathic traits was reported by Cope and colleagues (28). Also, the insular cortex showed reduced GMV in psychopathy (27,29,33,39,46,76).…”

“…Firstly, the posterior cerebellar lobe exhibited reduced activity in a moral judgment task in psychopathic subjects (114). Secondly, emotion recognition was associated with increased GMV in the posterior cerebellar lobe (76). Thirdly, reduced resting-state activity in the posterior cerebellum was found in ASPD subjects (131,132).…”

“…Psychopathic subjects showed decreased ability to recognize and process emotions (51,72,74,76). From a structural viewpoint, emotion recognition was ascribed to the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior insular cortex, and posterior cerebellum in psychopathic subjects, whereas this was attributed to the temporal cortex and amygdala in the control group (76). Functionally, increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and visual cortices were seen in psychopathic subjects in emotion recognition, whereas increased amygdalar activity was seen in healthy controls (51).…”

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Psychopathy and Greater Gray Matter Density in Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

“…Similarly, both gray matter volume and concentration in temporal and paralimbic regions was significantly decreased in a group of male offenders high in overall psychopathy, which accounted for about 20% of the variance in overall psychopathy scores (Ermer et al, 2012). This finding has been fairly consistent across similar studies Müller et al, 2008;Pera-Guardiola et al, 2016). Evidence has continued to accumulate linking overall psychopathy to decreases in volume and/or function in areas of the brain related to emotion and behavioral control Tiihonen et al, 2008).…”

“…Secondary psychopathic traits are also more often associated with structural deficits in brain regions involved in behavioral control and abnormalities in the function of these areas (Blair, 2007;Contreras-Rodríguez et al, 2015;Gao & Raine, 2010;Kimonis et al, 2012;Pera-Guardiola et al, 2016). However, these studies are typically conducted within forensic or clinical populations with individuals above college-agefactors that could potentially influence various brain regions, including the bilateral VLPFC.…”