Abstract
ABSTRACTCallous and unemotional traits affect a subgroup of children and adolescents with severe conduct problems, characterized by lack of guilt, remorse, emotionality, and empathy, which trigger a chronic and severe antisocial pathway. One aim of the current study was to investigate if the results found by Dadds and his colleagues (Dadds et al., [2006]. Attention to the eyes and fear-recognition deficits in child psychopathy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 189, 280–281. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.105.018150, [2008]. Reduced eye gaze explains ‘fear blindness’ in childhood psychopathic traits. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(4), 455–463. doi:10.1097/CHI.0b013e31816407f1) in the processing of the eye region of a fearful face in subjects with high levels of callous–unemotional traits could be replicated using event-related potentials (ERPs). From a sample of 48 male adolescent offenders, those who presented high CU (HCU) scores and low CU (LCU) scores were selected. Psychophysiological results show that HCU traits are associated with deficits in processing the eye region of fearful faces. These findings are discussed below.
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