Disrupted neural processing of emotional faces in psychopathy

Abstract

Psychopaths show a reduced ability to recognize emotion facial expressions, which may disturb the interpersonal relationship development and successful social adaptation. Behavioral hypotheses point toward an association between emotion recognition deficits in psychopathy and amygdala dysfunction. Our prediction was that amygdala dysfunction would combine deficient activation with disturbances in functional connectivity with cortical regions of the face-processing network. Twenty-two psychopaths and 22 control subjects were assessed and functional magnetic resonance maps were generated to identify both brain activation and task-induced functional connectivity using psychophysiological interaction analysis during an emotional face-matching task. Results showed significant amygdala activation in control subjects only, but differences between study groups did not reach statistical significance. In contrast, psychopaths showed significantly increased activation in visual and prefrontal areas, with this latest activation being associated with psychopaths' affective-interpersonal disturbances. Psychophysiological interaction analyses revealed a reciprocal reduction in functional connectivity between the left amygdala and visual and prefrontal cortices. Our results suggest that emotional stimulation may evoke a relevant cortical response in psychopaths, but a disruption in the processing of emotional faces exists involving the reciprocal functional interaction between the amygdala and neocortex, consistent with the notion of a failure to integrate emotion into cognition in psychopathic individuals.

Dissociable effects of psychopathic traits on cortical and subcortical visual pathways during facial emotion processing: An ERP study on the N170

“…In fact, Contreras‐Rodriguez et al. () have recently presented supportive evidence for this model by reporting hyperactivation of visual and prefrontal cortices and reduced connectivity between the amygdala and visual and prefrontal areas during facial emotion processing in individuals higher in the affective‐interpersonal component of psychopathy.…”

The neurobiology of psychopathic traits in youths

“…Findings of reduced amygdala responses to emotional provocation in adults with psychopathic traits are similar to reduced amygdala responses to fearful expressions found in youths with psychopathic traits. But studies that specifically examined the response to fearful expressions in adults with psychopathic traits have typically not shown reduced amygdala responses 233–235 (but see REF. 236).…”

Spatially generalizable representations of facial expressions: Decoding across partial face samples

“…Facial affect recognition (FAR) is a critical component of healthy social cognition in humans (Adolphs, 2003). Impairments in recognition and related neural dysfunction are found in several disorders associated with socio-affective dysfunction, including psychopathy and conduct disorder (Dadds et al, 2006;Contreras-Rodriguez et al, 2014), mood disorders (Surguladze et al, 2004), and autism (Swartz et al, 2013). Prominent neurocognitive models of FAR focus both on core face regions such as fusiform face area (FFA), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and occipital face area (OFA; Ishai, 2008;Park et al, 2012), and on the extended face network, which includes the amygdala, and areas of prefrontal cortex such as inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsal prefrontal cortex (dPFC; Stein et al, 2007;Dal Monte et al, 2013;Ferrari et al, 2016).…”