Abstract
This pilot study aimed to explore whether criminal psychopaths can learn volitional regulation of the left anterior insula with real-time fMRI neurofeedback. Our previous studies with healthy volunteers showed that learned control of the blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) signal was specific to the target region, and not a result of general arousal and global unspecific brain activation, and also that successful regulation modulates emotional responses, specifically to aversive picture stimuli but not neutral stimuli. In this pilot study, four criminal psychopaths were trained to regulate the anterior insula by employing negative emotional imageries taken from previous episodes in their lives, in conjunction with contingent feedback. Only one out of the four participants learned to increase the percent differential BOLD in the up-regulation condition across training runs. Subjects with higher Psychopathic Checklist-Revised (PCL:SV) scores were less able to increase the BOLD signal in the anterior insula than their lower PCL:SV counterparts. We investigated functional connectivity changes in the emotional network due to learned regulation of the successful participant, by employing multivariate Granger Causality Modeling (GCM). Learning to up-regulate the left anterior insula not only increased the number of connections (causal density) in the emotional network in the single successful participant but also increased the difference between the number of outgoing and incoming connections (causal flow) of the left insula. This pilot study shows modest potential for training psychopathic individuals to learn to control brain activity in the anterior insula.
Highlights
Psychopathy is a personality disorder described by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioral characteristics such as callousness, a marked lack of empathy, egocentricity and impulsivity
New influences from midtemporal gyrus and amygdale towards insula are observed. This pilot study explored the possibility of training criminal psychopaths to volitionally control the blood oxygenationlevel dependent (BOLD) signal in the left anterior insula with the help of an fMRI Brain-Computer Interface developed in our laboratory (Sitaram et al, 2009, 2011)
Our previous studies with healthy volunteers (Caria et al, 2007) had shown that learned control of the anterior insula was specific to the region, and not a result of general arousal and global unspecific brain activation, as demonstrated by a control group trained with a non-contingent feedback
Summary
Psychopathy is a personality disorder described by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioral characteristics such as callousness, a marked lack of empathy, egocentricity and impulsivity. Central to psychopathy is the deficient processing of emotions. These include shallowness and profound lack of remorse or empathy. Lykken (1957), using questionnaires and electrodermal responses, investigated the hypothesis that psychopaths fail to develop anxiety. Lykken found reduced anxiety levels in the subjective evaluations and low electrodermal responses to conditioned stimuli that were previously associated with shock in the autonomic indices. Empirical evidence indicates that psychopathic individuals have less intense aversive emotional reactions to many everyday situations than do non-psychopaths (Day and Wong, 1996). Other investigators suggested that the inability of psychopaths to anticipate the negative consequences of their behavior results from an insufficient capacity to develop anticipatory fear (Hare, 1978). We have reported that the absence of conditioned fear in psychopathic individuals is reflected in a virtually complete lack of activation of the fear circuitry in the brain (i.e., insula, anterior cingulate, amygdala, orbital frontal cortex) (Birbaumer et al, 2005)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
