B.H. Bulten

Early and Late Components of Error Monitoring in Violent Offenders with Psychopathy

BACKGROUNDnOne of the most recognizable features of psychopathy is the reduced ability to successfully learn and adapt overt behavior. This might be due to deficient processing of error information indicating the need to adapt controlled behavior.nnnMETHODSnEvent-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral components of error-monitoring processes were investigated in 16 individuals with psychopathy and in 18 healthy subjects. A letter version of the Eriksen flanker task was used in two conditions. The first condition (normal condition) required participants to press one of two buttons depending on the identity of the target stimulus. The second condition (signaling condition) required them to signal each time they had committed an error by making a second press on a signaling button. Early stages of error monitoring were investigated by using the error-related negativity (ERN/Ne) and post-error slowing as indexes. Later stages were explored by examining the error positivity (Pe) and signaling rates.nnnRESULTSnBoth groups showed similar ERN amplitudes and amounts of post-error slowing. The psychopathic group exhibited both reduced Pe amplitudes and diminished error-signaling rates compared with the control group.nnnCONCLUSIONSnIndividuals with psychopathy show intact early error processing and automatic behavioral adaptation but have deficits in later stages of error processing and controlled behavioral adaptation. This is an indication that individuals with psychopathy are unable to effectively use error information to change their behavior adequately.

Psychopaths lack the automatic avoidance of social threat: Relation to instrumental aggression

Psychopathy (PP) is associated with marked abnormalities in social emotional behaviour, such as high instrumental aggression (IA). A crucial but largely ignored question is whether automatic social approach-avoidance tendencies may underlie this condition. We tested whether offenders with PP show lack of automatic avoidance tendencies, usually activated when (healthy) individuals are confronted with social threat stimuli (angry faces). We applied a computerized approach-avoidance task (AAT), where participants pushed or pulled pictures of emotional faces using a joystick, upon which the faces decreased or increased in size, respectively. Furthermore, participants completed an emotion recognition task which was used to control for differences in recognition of facial emotions. In contrast to healthy controls (HC), PP patients showed total absence of avoidance tendencies towards angry faces. Interestingly, those responses were related to levels of instrumental aggression and the (in)ability to experience personal distress (PD). These findings suggest that social performance in psychopaths is disturbed on a basic level of automatic action tendencies. The lack of implicit threat avoidance tendencies may underlie their aggressive behaviour.

Neural correlates of error-related learning deficits in individuals with psychopathy

BACKGROUNDnPsychopathy (PP) is associated with a performance deficit in a variety of stimulus-response and stimulus-reinforcement learning paradigms. We tested the hypothesis that failures in error monitoring underlie these learning deficits.nnnMETHODnWe measured electrophysiological correlates of error monitoring [error-related negativity (ERN)] during a probabilistic learning task in individuals with PP (n=13) and healthy matched control subjects (n=18). The task consisted of three graded learning conditions in which the amount of learning was manipulated by varying the degree to which the response was predictive of the value of the feedback (50, 80 and 100%).nnnRESULTSnBehaviourally, we found impaired learning and diminished accuracy in the group of individuals with PP. Amplitudes of the response ERN (rERN) were reduced. No differences in the feedback ERN (fERN) were found.nnnCONCLUSIONSnThe results are interpreted in terms of a deficit in initial rule learning and subsequent generalization of these rules to new stimuli. Negative feedback is adequately processed at a neural level but this information is not used to improve behaviour on subsequent trials. As learning is degraded, the process of error detection at the moment of the actual response is diminished. Therefore, the current study demonstrates that disturbed error-monitoring processes play a central role in the often reported learning deficits in individuals with PP.

A Neurophysiological Dissociation Between Monitoring One's Own and Others' Actions in Psychopathy

BACKGROUNDnPsychopathy is a severe personality disorder often leading to violent and disruptive antisocial behavior. Efficient and proper social behavior crucially relies on monitoring of ones own as well as others actions, but the link between antisocial behavior in psychopathy and action monitoring in a social context has never been investigated.nnnMETHODSnEvent-related potentials were used to disentangle monitoring of ones own and others correct and incorrect actions in psychopathic subjects (n = 18) and matched healthy control subjects (n = 18). The error-related negativity (ERN) was investigated following own and others responses in a social flanker task.nnnRESULTSnAlthough both groups showed similar event-related potentials in response to own actions, amplitudes after the observation of others action-outcome were greatly reduced in psychopathy. More specifically, the latter was not unique to observed errors, because the psychopathic group also showed reduced brain potentials after the observation of correct responses. In contrast, earlier processing of observed actions in the motor system, as indicated by the lateralized readiness potential, was unimpaired.nnnCONCLUSIONSnMonitoring of own behavior is not affected in psychopathy, whereas processing of the outcome of others actions is disturbed. Specifically, although psychopathic individuals do not have a problem with initial processing of the actions of others, they have problems with deeper analyses of the consequences of the observed action, possibility related to the reward value of the action. These results suggest that aspects of action monitoring in psychopathy are disturbed in social contexts and possibly play a central role in the acquisition of abnormal social behavior.

Parsing fear: a reassessment of the evidence for fear deficits in psychopathy

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by interpersonal manipulation and callousness, and reckless and impulsive antisocial behavior. It is often seen as a disorder in which profound emotional disturbances lead to antisocial behavior. A lack of fear in particular has been proposed as an etiologically salient factor. In this review, we employ a conceptual model in which fear is parsed into separate subcomponents. Important historical conceptualizations of psychopathy, the neuroscientific and empirical evidence for fear deficits in psychopathy are compared against this model. The empirical evidence is also subjected to a meta-analysis. We conclude that most studies have used the term fear generically, amassing different methods and levels of measurement under the umbrella term fear. Unlike earlier claims that psychopathy is related to general fearlessness, we show there is evidence that psychopathic individuals have deficits in threat detection and responsivity, but that the evidence for reduced subjective experience of fear in psychopathy is far less compelling. (PsycINFO Database Record

Differentiating psychopathy from general antisociality using the P3 as a psychophysiological correlate of attentional allocation

Recent studies have shown that while psychopathy and non-psychopathic antisociality overlap, they differ in the extent to which cognitive impairments are present. Specifically, psychopathy has been related to abnormal allocation of attention, a function that is traditionally believed to be indexed by event-related potentials (ERPs) of the P3-family. Previous research examining psychophysiological correlates of attention in psychopathic individuals has mainly focused on the parietally distributed P3b component to rare targets. In contrast, very little is known about the frontocentral P3a to infrequent novel events in psychopathy. Thus, findings on the P3 components in psychopathy are inconclusive, while results in non-psychopathic antisocial populations are clearer and point toward an inverse relationship between antisociality and P3 amplitudes. The present study adds to extant literature on the P3a and P3b in psychopathy by investigating component amplitudes in psychopathic offenders (Nu200a=u200a20), matched non-psychopathic offenders (Nu200a=u200a23) and healthy controls (Nu200a=u200a16). Also, it was assessed how well each offender group was able to differentially process rare novel and target events. The offender groups showed general amplitude reductions compared to healthy controls, but did not differ mutually on overall P3a/P3b amplitudes. However, the psychopathic group still exhibited normal neurophysiological differentiation when allocating attention to rare novel and target events, unlike the non-psychopathic sample. The results highlight differences between psychopathic and non-psychopathic offenders regarding the integrity of the neurocognitive processes driving attentional allocation, as well as the usefulness of alternative psychophysiological measures in differentiating psychopathy from general antisociality.

Feedback-related negativity codes outcome valence, but not outcome expectancy, during reversal learning

Optimal behavior depends on the ability to assess the predictive value of events and to adjust behavior accordingly. Outcome processing can be studied by using its electrophysiological signatures—that is, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P300. A prominent reinforcement-learning model predicts an FRN on negative prediction errors, as well as implying a role for the FRN in learning and the adaptation of behavior. However, these predictions have recently been challenged. Notably, studies so far have used tasks in which the outcomes have been contingent on the response. In these paradigms, the need to adapt behavioral responses is present only for negative, not for positive feedback. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effects of positive as well as negative violations of expectancy on FRN amplitudes, without the usual confound of behavioral adjustments. A reversal-learning task was employed in which outcome value and outcome expectancy were orthogonalized; that is, both positive and negative outcomes were equally unexpected. The results revealed a double dissociation, with effects of valence but not expectancy on the FRN and, conversely, effects of expectancy but not valence on the P300. While FRN amplitudes were largest for negative-outcome trials, irrespective of outcome expectancy, P300 amplitudes were largest for unexpected-outcome trials, irrespective of outcome valence. These FRN effects were interpreted to reflect an evaluation along a good–bad dimension, rather than reflecting a negative prediction error or a role in behavioral adaptation. By contrast, the P300 reflects the updating of information relevant for behavior in a changing context.

Reversal deficits in individuals with psychopathy in explicit but not implicit learning conditions

BACKGROUNDnPsychopathy is a severe personality disorder that has been linked to impaired behavioural adaptation during reinforcement learning. Recent electrophysiological studies have suggested that psychopathy is related to impairments in intentionally using information relevant for adapting behaviour, whereas these impairments remain absent for behaviour relying on automatic use of information. We sought to investigate whether previously found impairments in response reversal in individuals with psychopathy also follow this dichotomy. We expected response reversal to be intact when the automatic use of information was facilitated. In contrast, we expected impaired response reversal when intentional use of information was required.nnnMETHODSnWe included offenders with psychopathy and matched healthy controls in 2 experiments with a probabilistic cued go/no-go reaction time task. The task implicated the learning and reversal of 2 predictive contingencies. In experiment 1, participants were not informed about the inclusion of a learning component, thus making cue-dependent learning automatic/incidental. In experiment 2, the instructions required participants to actively monitor and learn predictive relationships, giving learning a controlled/intentional nature.nnnRESULTSnWhile there were no significant group differences in acquisition learning in either experiment, the results revealed impaired response reversal in offenders with psychopathy when controlled learning was facilitated. Interestingly, this impairment was absent when automatic learning was predominant.nnnLIMITATIONSnPossible limitations are the use of a nonforensic control group and of self-report measures for drug use.nnnCONCLUSIONnResponse reversal deficits in individuals with psychopathy are modulated by the context provided by the instructions, according to the distinction between automatic and controlled processing in these individuals.

Unfair offers, unfair offenders? Fairness considerations in incarcerated individuals with and without psychopathy

Offenders with psychopathy have often committed crimes violating social norms, which may suggest a biased moral reasoning in psychopathy. Yet, as findings on utilitarian decisions remain conflicting, the current study investigated different aspects of fairness considerations in offenders with psychopathy, offenders without psychopathy and healthy individuals (N = 18/14/18, respectively). Unfair offers in a modified Ultimatum Game (UG) were paired with different unselected alternatives, thereby establishing the context of a proposal, and made under opposing intentionality constraints (intentional vs. unintentional). As in previous studies, unfair offers were most often rejected when the alternative was fair and when the offer was made intentionally. Importantly, however, offenders with psychopathy demonstrated a similar rejection pattern to that of healthy individuals, i.e., taking the unselected alternative into account. In contrast, delinquents without psychopathy did not adjust their decision behavior to the alternatives to an offer, suggesting stronger impairments in social decision-making. Crucially, the mechanisms and processes underlying rejection decisions might differ, particularly with regard to cognitive vs. emotional competencies. While preserved cognitive perspective-taking could drive seemingly intact decision patterns in psychopathy, emotional empathy is likely to be compromised.

Testosterone modulates altered prefrontal control of emotional actions in psychopathic offenders

Abstract Psychopathic individuals are notorious for their controlled goal-directed aggressive behavior. Yet, during social challenges, they often show uncontrolled emotional behavior. Healthy individuals can control their social emotional behavior through anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) downregulation of neural activity in the amygdala, with testosterone modulating aPFC–amygdala coupling. This study tests whether individual differences in this neuroendocrine system relate to the paradoxical lack of emotional control observed in human psychopathic offenders. Emotional control was operationalized with an fMRI-adapted approach–avoidance task requiring rule-driven control over rapid emotional responses. Fifteen psychopathic offenders and 19 matched healthy control subjects made approaching and avoiding movements in response to emotional faces. Control of social emotional behavior was required during affect-incongruent trials, when participants had to override affect-congruent, automatic action tendencies and select the opposite response. Psychopathic offenders showed less control-related aPFC activity and aPFC–amygdala coupling during trials requiring control of emotional actions, when compared with healthy control subjects. This pattern was particularly pronounced in psychopathic individuals with high endogenous testosterone levels. These findings suggest that reduced prefrontal coordination underlies reduced behavioral control in psychopathic offenders during emotionally provoking situations. Even though the modest sample size warrants replication, the modulatory role of endogenous testosterone on the aPFC–amygdala circuit suggests a neurobiological substrate of individual differences that is relevant for the advancement of treatment and the reduction of recidivism.