Neurocognitive explanations of the antisocial personality disorders

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an understanding of the antisocial personality disorders (APDs; i.e. conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy) that is informed by developmental cognitive neuroscience. These disorders must be understood in terms of both the information‐processing impairments shown by afflicted individuals and the dysfunctional neural substrates that give rise to these impairments. Three broad conceptualizations of the causes of APDs are discussed. These are: (1) an impairment in executive functioning implicating prefrontal cortex; (2) an impairment in executive emotion’s processing implicating orbito‐frontal cortex; (3) an impairment in emotion processing implicating the amygdala. The literature is discussed and it is concluded that: first, executive functioning impairments are not associated with the development of the APDs, although the individual’s executive functioning may interact with other impairments to effect prognosis; second, impairments of executive emotion processing may be implicated in the development of the APDs, though the evidence is equivocal and the lack of any detailed theory makes firm conclusions difficult; third, the development of the APDs is associated with an impairment in emotional processing and that this impairment may be due to dysfunction within a circuit which involves the amygdala.