The Antisocial Brain: Psychopathy Matters. A structural MRI investigation of antisocial male violent offenders (original) (raw)
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Brain Basis of Psychopathy in Criminal Offenders and General Population
Cerebral Cortex, 2021
Psychopathy is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy, and egotistical traits. These traits vary also in normally functioning individuals. Here, we tested whether such antisocial personalities are associated with similar structural and neural alterations as those observed in criminal psychopathy. Subjects were 100 non-convicted well-functioning individuals, 19 violent male offenders, and 19 matched controls. Subjects underwent T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and viewed movie clips with varying violent content during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Psychopathic traits were evaluated with Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (controls) and Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (offenders). Psychopathic offenders had lower gray matter density (GMD) in orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula. In the community sample, affective psychopathy traits were associated with lower GMD in the same areas. Viewing violence increased brain activity in periaqueductal grey matter, thalamus, somatosensory, premotor, and temporal cortices. Psychopathic offenders had increased responses to violence in thalamus and orbitofrontal, insular, and cingulate cortices. In the community sample, impulsivity-related psychopathy traits were positively associated with violence-elicited responses in similar areas. We conclude that brain characteristics underlying psychopathic spectrum in violent psychopathy are related to those observed in well-functioning individuals with asocial personality features.
Aggression, psychopathy and brain imaging — Review and future recommendations
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2009
a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Aggression Psychopathy Brain Imaging fMRI Violent behavior appears to result from a complex web of interacting genetic as well as environmental factors. Psychopathy is a strong predictor for relapse in violent acts. The current review shed light on rapidly expanding knowledge in brain imaging related to violent behavior and psychopathy. A literature search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane and PsycInfo combining the key words: mentally disordered offender/ aggression/violence/ crime/forensic psychiatry/brain imaging neuroimaging/fMRI/MRI/PET/SPECT/lack of empathy/psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. The reviewed material, which consisted of 48 articles, indicates a rather strong consensus on the connection between dysfunctional parts of the frontal and temporal lobes and violent antisocial behavior and psychopathy. In future studies, it would be useful to focus on the limbic system and to investigate which parts of the frontal lobes and cerebral networks that are of interest in the psychopathic personality. Moreover, the reviewed material highlights some of the methodological difficulties in this area of research such as selection bias in the recruitment of patients, inadequate matching of control subjects, and sometimes incongruous results. In the future we hope that brain imaging can be used to map biological deviations in different offenders in order to try to learn more about the different mechanisms behind violent behaviors.
NeuroImage, 2008
Major advances have been made in the understanding of the neurobiology of psychopathy in the past years, yet the distribution and extent of neuroanatomical abnormalities underlying the disorder are still poorly known. It is also unclear if different dimensions of the construct of psychopathy (e.g., emotional callousness, antisocial behavior) correspond to structural abnormalities in distinct regions of the brain. We tested the following hypotheses: (1) psychopathy is related to grey matter reductions in regions of the brain that underlie moral conduct and (2) the severity of psychopathy is related to the degree of structural abnormalities. Optimized voxel-based morphometry and the screening version of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL: SV) were employed to investigate a matched sample of 15 community psychiatric patients with high PCL: SV scores, and 15 healthy normal volunteers. The analyses controlled for total grey matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid volumes. Grey matter reductions were observed in the frontopolar, orbitofrontal and anterior temporal cortices, superior temporal sulcus region, and insula of the patients. The degree of structural abnormalities was significantly related to the interpersonal/affective dimension of psychopathy. The pattern of grey matter reductions in patients with high psychopathy scores comprised a distributed fronto-temporal network which plays a critical role in moral sensibility and behavior.
Cortex and amygdala morphology in psychopathy
Psychiatry Res, 2011
Psychopathy is characterized by abnormal emotional processes, but only recent neuroimaging studies have investigated its cerebral correlates. The study aim was to map local differences of cortical and amygdalar morphology. Cortical pattern matching and radial distance mapping techniques were used to analyze the magnetic resonance images of 26 violent male offenders (age: 32 ± 8) with psychopathy diagnosed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and no schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and in matched controls (age: 35 ± sp="0.12"/>11). The cortex displayed up to 20% reduction in the orbitofrontal and midline structures (corrected p b 0.001 bilaterally). Up to 30% tissue reduction in the basolateral nucleus, and 10-30% enlargement effects in the central and lateral nuclei indicated abnormal structure of the amygdala (corrected p = 0.05 on the right; and symmetrical pattern on the left). Psychopathy features specific morphology of the main cerebral structures involved in cognitive and emotional processing, consistent with clinical and functional data, and with a hypothesis of an alternative evolutionary brain development.
Investigating the neural correlates of psychopathy: a critical review
Molecular Psychiatry, 2011
In recent years, an increasing number of neuroimaging studies have sought to identify the brain anomalies associated with psychopathy. The results of such studies could have significant implications for the clinical and legal management of psychopaths, as well as for neurobiological models of human social behavior. In this article, we provide a critical review of structural and functional neuroimaging studies of psychopathy. In particular, we emphasize the considerable variability in results across studies, and focus our discussion on three methodological issues that could contribute to the observed heterogeneity in study data: (1) the use of between-group analyses (psychopaths vs non-psychopaths) as well as correlational analyses (normal variation in 'psychopathic' traits), (2) discrepancies in the criteria used to classify subjects as psychopaths and (3) consideration of psychopathic subtypes. The available evidence suggests that each of these issues could have a substantial effect on the reliability of imaging data. We propose several strategies for resolving these methodological issues in future studies, with the goal of fostering further progress in the identification of the neural correlates of psychopathy.
Volume Reduction in Prefrontal Gray Matter in Unsuccessful Criminal Psychopaths
Biological Psychiatry, 2005
Background: Although studies of neurologic patients have suggested that prefrontal structural impairments may predispose to sociopathy, it is unknown whether there is a relationship between psychopathy and prefrontal volume in individuals from the community and whether any prefrontal structural impairment is specific to "unsuccessful" (caught) psychopaths as opposed to "successful" (uncaught) psychopaths. This study tests the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with a reduction in prefrontal gray volume but that this abnormality is specific to unsuccessful psychopaths. Method: Prefrontal gray and white matter volumes were assessed using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 16 unsuccessful psychopaths, 13 successful psychopaths, and 23 control subjects. Results: Higher total as well as subfactor psychopathy scores (arrogant/deceptive, affective, and impulsive/unstable) were all associated with low prefrontal gray volume. Unsuccessful psychopaths, but not successful psychopaths, had a 22.3% reduction in prefrontal gray matter volume compared with control subjects. Conclusions: These results demonstrating for the first time a prefrontal structural deficit in community psychopaths provide partial support for a prefrontal theory of psychopathy but highlight an important difference between successful and unsuccessful psychopaths.
Brain anatomy of persistent violent offenders: More rather than less
Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2008
Most violent crimes in Western societies are committed by a small group of men who display antisocial behavior from an early age that remains stable across the life-span. It is not known if these men display abnormal brain structure. We compared regional brain volumes of 26 persistently violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder and substance dependence and 25 healthy men using magnetic resonance imaging volumetry and voxel-based morphometry (VBM). The violent offenders, as compared with the healthy men, had markedly larger white matter volumes, bilaterally, in the occipital and parietal lobes, and in the left cerebellum, and larger grey matter volume in right cerebellum (effect sizes up to 1.24, P b 0.001). Among the offenders, volumes of these areas were not associated with psychopathy scores, substance abuse, psychotropic medication, or global IQ scores. By contrast, VBM analyses of grey matter revealed focal, symmetrical, bilateral areas of atrophy in the postcentral gyri, frontopolar cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex among the offenders as compared with the healthy men (z-scores as high as 5.06). Offenders with psychopathy showed the smallest volumes in these areas. The larger volumes in posterior brain areas may reflect atypical neurodevelopmental processes that underlie early-onset persistent antisocial and aggressive behavior.
Neurobiology of aggressive behaviour: focus on psychopathy
Violent behaviour appears to be the result of a complex net of interacting genetic as well as environmental factors. Both antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and psychopathy are associated with a propensity owards violence, although there is some evidence that psychopathy may be associated with instrumental aggression, while ASPD is more associated with reactive aggression. People with psychopathic personality are characterized by a constellation of traits including interpersonal affective features (e.g. lack of affect and emotion) and antisocial features (e.g. impulsive and aggressive behaviour). Cognitive and affective emotional processing deficits associated with brain abnormalities, particularly structural and functional impairments in the orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex and amygdale, have been found in psychopathy. Frontal and temporal obe abnormalities are associated with violent behaviour, such that prefrontal deficits have been associated with behavioural disinhibition, increased risk taking, and impulsivity, whereas the temporal lobes, among others, are involved in affect regulation and sexual behaviour. Psychopathy has not traditionally been associated with generalized cognitive or intellectual dysfunctions, but rather with circumscribed deficits in specific neuropsychological domains. Based on research using neuropsychological assessments and other techniques, several cognitive characteristics appear to exist among subjects with psychopathy, such as cognitive inflexibility, attention deficits and inappropriate processing of contextual cues in the environment. The neuroscience of psychopathy is a field undergoing rapid growth and, like any field in its nascent stages, is vulnerable to methodological inconsistencies and subsequent interpretive variations. Although psychopathy is a major area of research in psychology and criminology, much remains unknown about its etiological underpinnings. Heterogeneity of the genetic and the neurocognitive findings may be partly due to the existence of different subtypes of psychopaths. Future studies need to examine the relationships between genes and interpersonal, behavioural and neuropsychological features of psychopathy, in addition and in combination with their role in legal decision-making.
Brain structure reflects empathy and psychopathy in incarcerated males
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), 2023
Whether brain structure could reflect empathy and psychopathy in the same antisocial population is unknown. In White adult males from prison (N = 549, Mage = 34 ± 11 years), we measured empathy with the Perspective Taking (IRI-PT) and Empathic Concern (IRI-EC) subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and psychopathic traits with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised or Youth Version (PCL-R/YV). A subsample (N = 278, Mage = 36 ± 11 years) underwent MRI, from which we derived cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA). CT did not relate to IRI-PT or IRI-EC, while SA of the left inferior temporal gyrus (L ITG) related negatively to IRI-PT and positively to PCL-R and PCL-R item 8 (Callousness/Lack of Empathy). L-ITG SA predicted scores on IRI-PT-but not IRI-EC-in an out-of-sample test (R 2 = 0.030). Mapping onto the histological BigBrain gradient, higher scores on IRI-PT-but not IRI-ECentailed a progressive SA reduction from Bin 1 (sensorimotor) to Bin 5 (limbic). Psychopaths (PCL-R/YV ≥ 30, N = 73/39) had: (1) reduced IRI-PT and IRI-EC scores (Cohen's Ds =-0.423,-0.564, respectively); (2) increased L-ITG SA (Cohen's D = 0.560); (3) increased global SA (Cohen's D = 0.480); and (4) reduced SA covariance between the left precentral and left isthmus-cingulate cortices. There were no group differences in global, modular, or nodal SA covariance, as indexed by canonical graph-theoretical metrics. We provide novel insights into the brain correlates of empathy and psychopathy in incarcerated males.