Sarah J. Brislin

Disrupted Expected Value and Prediction Error Signaling in Youths With Disruptive Behavior Disorders During a Passive Avoidance Task

OBJECTIVE Youths with disruptive behavior disorders, including conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, show major impairments in reinforcement-based decision making. However, the neural basis of these difficulties remains poorly understood. This partly reflects previous failures to differentiate responses during decision making and feedback processing and to take advantage of computational model-based functional MRI (fMRI). METHOD Participants were 38 community youths ages 10-18 (20 had disruptive behavior disorders, and 18 were healthy comparison youths). Model-based fMRI was used to assess the computational processes involved in decision making and feedback processing in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, insula, and caudate. RESULTS Youths with disruptive behavior disorders showed reduced use of expected value information within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex when choosing to respond and within the anterior insula when choosing not to respond. In addition, they showed reduced responsiveness to positive prediction errors and increased responsiveness to negative prediction errors within the caudate during feedback. CONCLUSIONS This study is the first to determine impairments in the use of expected value within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and insula during choice and in prediction error-signaling within the caudate during feedback in youths with disruptive behavior disorders.

Callous-unemotional traits modulate the neural response associated with punishing another individual during social exchange: a preliminary investigation.

The current study examined whether Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits, a core component of psychopathy, modulate neural responses of participants engaged in a social exchange game. In this task, participants were offered an allocation of money and then given the chance to punish the offerer. Twenty youth participated and responses to both offers and the participants punishment (or not) of these offers were examined. Increasingly unfair offers were associated with increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activity but this responsiveness was not modulated by CU traits. Increasing punishment of unfair offers was associated with increased dACC and anterior insula activity and this activity was modulated by CU traits. Higher CU trait participants showed a weaker association between activity and punishment level. These data suggest that CU traits are associated with appropriate expectations of other individuals normative behavior but weaker representations of such information when guiding behavior of the self.

Reduced activity within the dorsal endogenous orienting of attention network to fearful expressions in youth with disruptive behavior disorders and psychopathic traits

Using behavioral and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response indices through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the current study investigated whether youths with disruptive behavior disorders (conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder) plus psychopathic traits (DBD + PT) show aberrant sensitivity to eye gaze information generally and/or whether they show particular insensitivity to eye gaze information in the context of fearful expressions. The participants were 36 children and adolescents (ages 10-17 years); 17 had DBD + PT and 19 were healthy comparison subjects. Participants performed a spatial attention paradigm where spatial attention was cued by eye gaze in faces displaying fearful, angry, or neutral affect. Eye gaze sensitivity was indexed both behaviorally and as BOLD response. There were no group differences in behavioral response: both groups showed significantly faster responses if the target was in the congruent spatial direction indicated by eye gaze. Neither group showed a Congruence × Emotion interaction; neither group showed an advantage from the displayers emotional expression behaviorally. However, the BOLD response revealed a significant Group × Congruence × Emotion interaction. The comparison youth showed increased activity within the dorsal endogenous orienting network (superior parietal lobule and inferior parietal sulcus) for fearful congruent relative to incongruent trials relative to the youth with DBD + PT. The results are discussed with reference to current models of DBD + PT and possible treatment innovations.

Reward: Empirical Contribution: Temporal Discounting and Conduct Disorder in Adolescents

The current study examined temporal discounting (the decrease in subjective reward value as a function of increasing delay) in youths with conduct disorder (CD) and the extent to which this was modulated by level of psychopathic traits. In the temporal discounting task, participants were asked to choose between immediate rewards of varying values and a larger reward, held at a constant value (

A triarchic model analysis of the youth psychopathic traits inventory.

10), whose receipt was delayed by different time intervals across trials (e.g., 7 days, 360 days). The level of immediate reward necessary for selection over the larger, delayed reward is the measure of temporal discounting. Forty-six youths (21 with CD and 25 healthy youths) participated in this study. Compared with healthy youths, youths with CD chose significantly smaller amounts of immediate reward rather than the larger future rewards. This was the case even in youths with CD without comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. However, level of psychopathic traits did not modulate temporal discounting in this sample. These results are discussed in terms of neurobiological models of CD and psychopathic traits.

Development and validation of triarchic psychopathy scales from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire.

The Triarchic model of psychopathy characterizes this complex condition in terms of distinct phenotypic constructs of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. The current study evaluated the coverage of these constructs provided by a well-established inventory for assessing psychopathy in adolescents, the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI). A consensus rating approach was used to identify YPI items relevant to each Triarchic model construct, and convergent and discriminant validity of the resulting YPI-Triarchic scales were examined in relation to criterion measures consisting of scores on other psychopathy measures and relevant personality trait variables (N = 618, M age = 18.8). The YPI-Triarchic scales showed good internal consistency and exhibited properties largely consistent with predictions based on the Triarchic model, aside from somewhat greater than expected covariance between boldness and other facet scales. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for interpreting scores on the YPI and for investigating distinctive components of psychopathy in youth.

The relationship between large cavum septum pellucidum and antisocial behavior, callous‐unemotional traits and psychopathy in adolescents

Psychopathy is conceptualized by the triarchic model as encompassing 3 distinct phenotypic constructs: boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. In the current study, the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), a normal-range personality measure, was evaluated for representation of these 3 constructs. Consensus ratings were used to identify MPQ items most related to each triarchic (Tri) construct. Scale measures were developed from items indicative of each construct, and scores for these scales were evaluated for convergent and discriminant validity in community (N = 176) and incarcerated samples (N = 240). Across the 2 samples, MPQ-Tri scale scores demonstrated good internal consistencies and relationships with criterion measures of various types consistent with predictions based on the triarchic model. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for further investigation of the triarchic model constructs in preexisting datasets that include the MPQ, in particular longitudinal and genetically informative datasets.

Prediction errors to emotional expressions: the roles of the amygdala in social referencing

BACKGROUND The presence of a large cavum septum pellucidum (CSP) has been previously associated with antisocial behavior/psychopathic traits in an adult community sample. AIMS The current study investigated the relationship between a large CSP and symptom severity in disruptive behavior disorders (DBD; conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder). METHOD Structural MRI scans of youth with DBDs (N = 32) and healthy comparison youth (N = 27) were examined for the presence of a large CSP and if this was related to symptom severity. RESULTS Replicating previous results, a large CSP was associated with DBD diagnosis, proactive aggression, and level of psychopathic traits in youth. However, the presence of a large CSP was unrelated to aggression or psychopathic traits within the DBD sample. CONCLUSIONS Early brain mal-development may increase the risk of a DBD diagnosis, but does not mark a particularly severe form of DBD within patients receiving these diagnoses.

A Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) Model of Triarchic Psychopathy Constructs: Development and Initial Validation

Social referencing paradigms in humans and observational learning paradigms in animals suggest that emotional expressions are important for communicating valence. It has been proposed that these expressions initiate stimulus-reinforcement learning. Relatively little is known about the role of emotional expressions in reinforcement learning, particularly in the context of social referencing. In this study, we examined object valence learning in the context of a social referencing paradigm. Participants viewed objects and faces that turned toward the objects and displayed a fearful, happy or neutral reaction to them, while judging the gender of these faces. Notably, amygdala activation was larger when the expressions following an object were less expected. Moreover, when asked, participants were both more likely to want to approach, and showed stronger amygdala responses to, objects associated with happy relative to objects associated with fearful expressions. This suggests that the amygdala plays two roles in social referencing: (i) initiating learning regarding the valence of an object as a function of prediction errors to expressions displayed toward this object and (ii) orchestrating an emotional response to the object when value judgments are being made regarding this object.

Callousness and Affective Face Processing in Adults: Behavioral and Brain-Potential Indicators.

The current work sought to operationalize constructs of the triarchic model of psychopathy in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), a species well suited for investigations of basic biobehavioral dispositions relevant to psychopathology. Across three studies, we generated validity evidence for scale measures of the triarchic model constructs in a large sample (N = 238) of socially housed chimpanzees. Using a consensus-based rating approach, we first identified candidate items for the chimpanzee triarchic (CHMP-Tri) scales from an existing primate personality instrument and refined these into scales. In Study 2, we collected data for these scales from human informants (N = 301) and examined their convergent and divergent relations with scales from another triarchic inventory developed for human use. In Study 3, we undertook validation work examining associations between CHMP-Tri scales and task measures of approach-avoidance behavior (N = 73) and ability to delay gratification (N = 55). Current findings provide support for a chimpanzee model of core dispositions relevant to psychopathy and other forms of psychopathology.