Primary and Secondary Variants of Psychopathy in a Volunteer Sample Are Associated With Different Neurocognitive Mechanisms

Sethi, Arjun; McCrory, Eamon; Puetz, Vanessa B.; Hoffmann, Ferdinand; Knodt, Annchen R.; Radtke, Spenser R.; Brigidi, Bartholomew D.; Hariri, Ahmad R.; Viding, Essi

doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2018.04.002

Cited by 37 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 64 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Note that our results are still consistent with other research pointing out that adult Secondary psychopathy is related to average levels of autonomic responsivity in anticipation of aversive outcomes (Lykken, ), and that youth in the Secondary group show normative physiological responding to negative stimuli (Dackis et al ., ). Our findings also agree with a recent fMRI study providing evidence that the Secondary group showed similar amygdala activity in response to fearful facial expressions (signalling the presence of a threat) as the comparison group (Sethi et al ., ). Interestingly, this group also showed a relative hyper‐responsivity to the CS+ during threat extinction, which would be in agreement with the notion that the threat circuit is hyper‐active in Secondary psychopathy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Amygdala functioning during threat acquisition and extinction differentiates antisocial subtypes

Fanti

Konikou

Cohn

et al. 2019

Journal of Neuropsychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Extensive work implicates abnormal amygdala response during threatening stimuli in youth with antisocial behaviour. However, no research has examined whether youth identified in Primary and Secondary psychopathy subtypes would show differences in amygdala activity in response to threat acquisition and extinction. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify distinct antisocial groups based on participants' scores on callous-unemotional (CU) traits, anxiety, and familial abuse in a sample of 136 high-risk adolescents (mean age = 17.7, SD = 1.6; 86% male). Functional MRI was then used to assess amygdala activation patterns during a classical differential delay threat-conditioning task. In addition to the Primary and Secondary subtypes, we identified groups mainly high on anxiety and others who were mainly high on abuse. Participants in the Primary group showed lower right amygdala activity in response to neutral male faces compared to the low, Anxious, and Secondary groups, whereas participants in the group with history of abuse exhibited higher right amygdala activity during threat acquisition compared to the rest of the groups. During threat extinction, the Primary group showed lower right amygdala activity compared to the Secondary and abuse groups. This is the first study to reveal amygdala activation in identified psychopathy-related variants during threat conditioning. We found that stratifying the sample based on the identified variants revealed amygdala functioning patterns that furthered our understanding of emotionbased deficits among high-risk adolescents.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Amygdala functioning during threat acquisition and extinction differentiates antisocial subtypes

Fanti

Konikou

Cohn

et al. 2019

Journal of Neuropsychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…CU traits seem typically associated with reduced anxiety (Frick et al , 2013; Eisenbarth et al , 2016). Cases with CU traits and co-occurring high levels of anxiety might represent a distinct phenotype with different clinical outcomes (Fanti, Demetriou and Kimonis, 2013) and neural correlates (Sethi et al , 2018). To conclude, our results emphasize to differentiate between aggression subtypes and consider comorbid anxiety and ADHD symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different Whole-Brain Functional Connectivity Correlates of Reactive-Proactive Aggression and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Disruptive Children and Adolescents

Werhahn

Mohl

Willinger

et al. 2019

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background. Disruptive behavior in children and adolescents can manifest itself in reactive (RA) and proactive (PA) aggression and is modulated by callous-unemotional (CU) traits and comorbidity. Research on aggression subtype-specific neural correlates is limited and the role of comorbid symptoms largely neglected.Methods. The current multi-center study extended previous efforts by investigating unrestricted resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) alterations. The large sample (n = 207) of children and adolescents aged 8 -18 years (mean age = 13.30 ± 2.60 years) included 118 cases with disruptive behavior (80 diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and/or Conduct Disorder) and 89 controls. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety symptoms were added as covariates. We measured changes in global and local voxelto-voxel rsFC using functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3T (mean acquisition time = 8 min 25 sec).Results. Compared to controls, cases demonstrated altered rsFC including frontal areas when anxiety but not ADHD symptoms were considered. Within cases, RA and PA scores related to changes in global and local rsFC in central gyrus and precuneus previously linked to aggression-related impairments. CU trait severity correlated with global rsFC alterations including inferior and middle temporal gyrus implicated in empathy, emotion, and rewardrelated activity. Importantly, most observed aggression subtype-specific patterns could only be identified when ADHD and anxiety problems were also accounted for.Conclusions. The current study clarifies that distinct though overlapping brain connectivity measures can disentangle differing manifestations of aggressive behavior. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of considering comorbid symptoms for detecting aggressionrelated rsFC alterations. Werhahn et al. 5

show abstract

“…Self-report measures allow researchers to screen a large pool of participants from community samples and individuals scoring highly on the trait of interest can then be recruited for further research [76]. Similar to Sethi et al [33], a quartile split approach was used in the current study. While only 50 participants completed the eye-tracking task, the screening process allowed us to identify participants that varied considerably in their Levenson SRPS and AAS scores.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Primary psychopathy is thought to have a significant genetic component and is associated with planned, deliberate action and a lack of emotional responses [30][31][32]. On the other hand, Secondary psychopathy is thought to be a consequence of environmental factors such as a history of maltreatment, and is characterised by deficits in impulse control [31][32][33]. Importantly, in contrast to Primary psychopathy, Secondary psychopaths are thought to have the ability to feel remorse and fearfulness [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individuals with Psychopathic Traits and Poor Attitudes towards Animals Can Recognise Infant Features But Give Them Reduced Attentional Priority

Cohen

McParland

Jack

et al. 2020

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Simple Summary: Certain facial characteristics in companion animals are perceived by humans as being 'cute'. This includes having large eyes, a round head and a small nose and mouth. These characteristics, which are shared with human infants, trigger care-giving responses in humans. Despite this, however, companion animal abuse occurs. The aim of this research was to better understand cognitive processes of people with pro-social personality traits and positive attitudes towards animals compared to those with anti-social personality traits and negative attitudes towards animals. This was done by assessing participants' ability to detect cues of cuteness in animal and human infant faces (study 1) and by assessing attention to cuteness cues via an eye-tracking task (study 2). Findings indicate that the ability to detect cuteness cues is widespread, regardless of personality or attitudes. However, individuals with anti-social personality traits and negative attitudes towards animals chose to pay less attention to 'cute' stimuli in the eye-tracking task. This proof of concept study is an initial step in determining how individuals 'at risk' of committing animal abuse process information on infant features in animals.Abstract: Infant features are physical traits that are characteristic of human infants and include facial features such as large and low-lying eyes, and a small nose and mouth. Animals possessing high levels of infant features elicit care-giving responses in humans. Despite this, animal cruelty is a common occurrence. The aim of this research was to determine whether the ability to recognise and/or attend to infant features is linked to subclinical psychopathic traits and attitudes towards animals. Using a community sample, participants (n = 387) completed a cuteness forced-choice task. Self-reported psychopathy and attitude towards animals were not related to the participants' ability to detect cues of cuteness in human infants and animals. In a second study, participants (n = 142) were screened for low versus high primary psychopathy and low versus high animal attitude scores. A Psychopathy-Attitude Composite score was created and a subset of participants (n = 50) from the upper and lower quartiles completed a free-viewing eye-tracking task where 'Cute', 'Neutral, 'Monetary' and 'Control' images were presented in pairs. Higher levels of psychopathic traits and an anti-animal welfare attitude were associated with decreased attention to 'Cute' images in terms of decreased dwell time, mean fixation duration and mean fixation count, measures of voluntary attention. There were a number of interactions between Psychopathy-Attitude Composite classification and attention to each image category in terms of dwell time, first fixation duration, mean fixation duration and fixation count. These findings support the theory that individuals with psychopathic traits recognise facial cues of vulnerability but choose to give them reduced attentional priority. This may have implications for animal welfare.

show abstract

Primary and Secondary Variants of Psychopathy in a Volunteer Sample Are Associated With Different Neurocognitive Mechanisms

Cited by 37 publications

References 64 publications

Amygdala functioning during threat acquisition and extinction differentiates antisocial subtypes

Amygdala functioning during threat acquisition and extinction differentiates antisocial subtypes

Different Whole-Brain Functional Connectivity Correlates of Reactive-Proactive Aggression and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Disruptive Children and Adolescents

Individuals with Psychopathic Traits and Poor Attitudes towards Animals Can Recognise Infant Features But Give Them Reduced Attentional Priority

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About