Antisocial Individuals Research Articles

How infants and toddlers react to antisocial others

Although adults generally prefer helpful behaviors and those who perform them, there are situations (in particular, when the target of an action is disliked) in which overt antisocial acts are seen as appropriate, and those who perform them are viewed positively. The current studies explore the developmental origins of this capacity for selective social evaluation. We find that although 5-mo-old infants uniformly prefer individuals who act positively toward others regardless of the status of the target, 8-mo-old infants selectively prefer characters who act positively toward prosocial individuals and characters who act negatively toward antisocial individuals. Additionally, young toddlers direct positive behaviors toward prosocial others and negative behaviors toward antisocial others. These findings constitute evidence that the nuanced social judgments and actions readily observable in human adults have their foundations in early developing cognitive mechanisms.

Examining the relationship among substance abuse, negative emotionality and impulsivity across subtypes of antisocial and psychopathic substance abusers

Growing evidence suggests that individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) can be categorized into theoretically meaningful subtypes. This study builds on earlier cluster-analytic research (Poythress et al., 2010) that identified four subtypes of ASPD in a large sample of prison inmates and offenders ordered into mandatory substance abuse treatment. These four subtypes (primary, secondary, and “fearful” psychopathic and non-psychopathic ASPD) differed in theoretically important ways on various criterion measures. Of those participants in substance abuse treatment ( N = 571), we compare the four clusters, as well as non-ASPD substance abusers, in terms of (a) the severity of their self-reported alcohol and drug problems and (b) whether the severity of their substance abuse is predicted by similar etiologically important correlates (i.e., negative emotionality, impulsivity). There were modest subgroup differences in abuse, although as expected secondary psychopaths reported more severe misuse than primary psychopaths. Associations between impulsivity and negative emotionality and drug use for the total sample were in the expected direction, though relatively modest in magnitude. Unexpectedly, these associations were weaker among psychopathic subtypes relative to the non-psychopathic subgroups. These findings suggest that the etiology of drug use may differ across subgroups of chronically antisocial individuals.

P03-257 - Dysfunctional impulsivity in schizophrenia: a functional MRI investigation

IntroductionDysfunctional impulsivity reflects ‘recklessness without deliberation and evaluation of consequences’ and has negative consequences whereas functional impulsivity reflects ‘rapid responding to situational demands in order to maximise one's circumstances’ and often has positive consequences (1).ObjectiveTo examine the functional brain basis of dysfunctional impulsivity in healthy people and in people with schizophrenia.MethodsThirteen healthy controls and 21 schizophrenia patients (10/21 with serious repetitive violence) underwent fMRI during a Go/ NoGo task. Dysfunctional impulsivity was indexed using the Impulsiveness subscale and functional impulsivity using the Venturesomeness subscale of the Impulsiveness-Venturesomeness-Empathy questionnaire (2).ResultsViolent patients had elevated Impulsiveness scores relative to non-violent patients and controls. Impulsiveness did not correlate significantly with task performance in healthy controls or patients. Impulsiveness, but not Venturesomeness, scores correlated during the NoGO condition with lower activity in the anterior cingulate (AC) in controls, and lower inferior temporal and hippocampal activity in patients.ConclusionsThese findings accord with previously reported associations between reduced hippocampal volume and dysfunctional impulsivity in schizophrenia (3) and, combined with our earlier observations of reduced AC activation during a working memory task in violent antisocial individuals (4), suggest that the influence of dysfunctional impulsivity in antisocial and criminal behaviour is mediated via deficient (inhibitory) functions of the AC and hippocampus.

Implications of Antisocial Parents

Antisocial behavior is a socially maladaptive and harmful trait to possess. This can be especially injurious for a child who is raised by a parent with this personality structure. The pathology of antisocial behavior implies traits such as deceitfulness, irresponsibility, unreliability, and an incapability to feel guilt, remorse, or even love. This is damaging to a child's emotional, cognitive, and social development. Parents with this personality makeup can leave a child traumatized, empty, and incapable of forming meaningful personal relationships. Both genetic and environmental factors influence the development of antisocial behavior. Moreover, the child with a genetic predisposition to antisocial behavior who is raised with a parental style that triggers the genetic liability is at high risk for developing the same personality structure. Antisocial individuals are impulsive, irritable, and often have no concerns over their purported responsibilities. As a parent, this can lead to erratic discipline, neglectful parenting, and can undermine effective care giving. This paper will focus on the implications of parents with antisocial behavior and the impact that this behavior has on attachment as well as on the development of antisocial traits in children.

All about the Money - External Performance Monitoring is Affected by Monetary, but Not by Socially Conveyed Feedback Cues in More Antisocial Individuals.

This study investigated the relationship between feedback processing and antisocial personality traits measured by the PSSI questionnaire (Kuhl and Kazén, 1997) in a healthy undergraduate sample. While event-related potentials [feedback related negativity (FRN), P300] were recorded, participants encountered expected and unexpected feedback during a gambling task. As recent findings suggest learning problems and deficiencies during feedback processing in clinical populations of antisocial individuals, we performed two experiments with different healthy participants in which feedback about monetary gains or losses consisted either of social–emotional (facial emotion displays) or non-social cues (numerical stimuli). Since the FRN and P300 are both sensitive to different aspects of feedback processing we hypothesized that they might help to differentiate between individuals scoring high and low on an antisocial trait measure. In line with previous evidence FRN amplitudes were enhanced after negative and after unexpected feedback stimuli. Crucially, participants scoring high on antisocial traits displayed larger FRN amplitudes than those scoring low only in response to expected and unexpected negative numerical feedback, but not in response to social–emotional feedback – irrespective of expectancy. P300 amplitudes were not modulated by antisocial traits at all, but by subjective reward probabilities. The present findings indicate that individuals scoring high on antisociality attribute higher motivational salience to monetary compared to emotional–social feedback which is reflected in FRN amplitude enhancement. Contrary to recent findings, however, no processing deficiencies concerning social–emotional feedback stimuli were apparent in those individuals. This indicates that stimulus salience is an important aspect in learning and feedback processes in individuals with antisocial traits which has potential implications for therapeutic interventions in clinical populations.

Video Games and Youth Violence: A Prospective Analysis in Adolescents

The potential influence of violent video games on youth violence remains an issue of concern for psychologists, policymakers and the general public. Although several prospective studies of video game violence effects have been conducted, none have employed well validated measures of youth violence, nor considered video game violence effects in context with other influences on youth violence such as family environment, peer delinquency, and depressive symptoms. The current study builds upon previous research in a sample of 302 (52.3% female) mostly Hispanic youth. Results indicated that current levels of depressive symptoms were a strong predictor of serious aggression and violence across most outcome measures. Depressive symptoms also interacted with antisocial traits so that antisocial individuals with depressive symptoms were most inclined toward youth violence. Neither video game violence exposure, nor television violence exposure, were prospective predictors of serious acts of youth aggression or violence. These results are put into the context of criminological data on serious acts of violence among youth.

Contextual Modulation of Biases in Face Recognition

BackgroundThe ability to recognize the faces of potential cooperators and cheaters is fundamental to social exchanges, given that cooperation for mutual benefit is expected. Studies addressing biases in face recognition have so far proved inconclusive, with reports of biases towards faces of cheaters, biases towards faces of cooperators, or no biases at all. This study attempts to uncover possible causes underlying such discrepancies.Methodology and FindingsFour experiments were designed to investigate biases in face recognition during social exchanges when behavioral descriptors (prosocial, antisocial or neutral) embedded in different scenarios were tagged to faces during memorization. Face recognition, measured as accuracy and response latency, was tested with modified yes-no, forced-choice and recall tasks (N = 174). An enhanced recognition of faces tagged with prosocial descriptors was observed when the encoding scenario involved financial transactions and the rules of the social contract were not explicit (experiments 1 and 2). Such bias was eliminated or attenuated by making participants explicitly aware of “cooperative”, “cheating” and “neutral/indifferent” behaviors via a pre-test questionnaire and then adding such tags to behavioral descriptors (experiment 3). Further, in a social judgment scenario with descriptors of salient moral behaviors, recognition of antisocial and prosocial faces was similar, but significantly better than neutral faces (experiment 4).ConclusionThe results highlight the relevance of descriptors and scenarios of social exchange in face recognition, when the frequency of prosocial and antisocial individuals in a group is similar. Recognition biases towards prosocial faces emerged when descriptors did not state the rules of a social contract or the moral status of a behavior, and they point to the existence of broad and flexible cognitive abilities finely tuned to minor changes in social context.

Brain Region's Dopamine Levels Linked to Psychopathy Trait

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Clinical & Research NewsFull AccessBrain Region's Dopamine Levels Linked to Psychopathy TraitJoan Arehart-TreichelJoan Arehart-TreichelSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:7 May 2010https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.45.9.psychnews_45_9_022AbstractAh, the “bad guy” is thinking, “I'm going to take that sucker for all he's worth.”An overly responsive nucleus accumbens—illustrated in this brain image—may prompt antisocial individuals to be aggressive.Credit: Gregory Samanez-Larkin and Joshua Buckholtz, Vanderbilt UniversityWhat's going on in his brain? His brain's reward center—the nucleus accumbens—may be goading him into action, a new study suggests.The study found a link between the personality trait of psychopathy and an overly responsive nucleus accumbens.Joshua Buckholtz, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at Vanderbilt University, headed the study. Results were reported online March 14 in Nature Neuroscience.The personality trait of psychopathy is characterized by charm, egocentricity, manipulation of others, sensation-seeking, poor reflection, and blunted empathy. Psychopathy in turn is a robust predictor of antisocial behavior.Moreover, alcohol, nicotine, and many other drugs of abuse are known to stimulate the nucleus accumbens, and psychopathic individuals are known to be at heightened risk for developing substance abuse problems. So Buckholtz and his colleagues suspected that there might be a link between the personality trait of psychopathy and the nucleus accumbens. They conducted a study to find out.They recruited 24 community volunteers and used the Psychopathic Personality Inventory, a validated measurement of psychopathy, to determine how each subject scored on a subdomain of the trait called “impulsive antisociality.” This subdomain in turn has been linked with antisocial behavior, aggression, impulsivity, and substance abuse both in prison and community samples.In a first experiment, the subjects were given an amphetamine, which is known to increase levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. After that, PET scans were used to measure the amount of dopamine released in the nucleus accumbens of each subject. The researchers looked to see whether there was any correlation between how high subjects had scored on impulsive antisociality and the amount of dopamine released in their nucleus accumbens.The higher subjects had scored on impulsive antisociality, the more dopamine they released. In fact, when the highest-scoring subjects were compared with the lowest-scoring ones, the former released four times more dopamine in the nucleus accumbens than the latter did.In a second experiment, the subjects played a game in which they could win a cash reward. While they were playing the game, fMRI scans were used to see how much dopamine was released in their nucleus accumbens. The higher subjects had scored on impulsive antisociality, the more dopamine they released.So the combined results from both experiments appear to indicate that people who score high on impulsive antisociality possess an especially responsive nucleus accumbens, or reward system.But what do these findings mean in practical terms? One possibility is that people with an especially responsive reward system might be aggressive about obtaining whatever they consider rewarding, whether it is drugs, sex, money, or something else. Indeed, rodent studies have shown that dopamine is released from the nucleus accumbens during aggressive behavior, and aggressive behavior is common among antisocial or psychopathic individuals.Although Buckholtz and his group believe that they've taken an important first step in linking impulsive antisociality to an exaggerated dopamine response in the nucleus accumbens, they now hope to confirm their results in subjects who have been diagnosed as having antisocial personality disorder.And if they manage to do so, then an especially responsive reward system might be considered one of the biological hallmarks of antisocial individuals, just as deficits in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala already are (Psychiatric News, April 5, 2002; October 16, 2009).The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.An abstract of “Mesolimbic Dopamine Reward System Hypersensitivity in Individuals With Psychopathic Traits” is posted at <www.nature.com/neurojournal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nn.2510.pdf>. ISSUES NewArchived

Three-month-olds show a negativity bias in their social evaluations.

Previous research has shown that 6-month-olds evaluate others on the basis of their social behaviors--they are attracted to prosocial individuals, and avoid antisocial individuals (Hamlin, Wynn & Bloom, 2007). The current studies investigate these capacities prior to 6 months of age. Results from two experiments indicate that even 3-month-old infants evaluate others based on their social behavior towards third parties, and that negative social information is developmentally privileged.

Entwicklungsfaktoren dissozialer Störungen – die Bedeutung des autonomen Stresssystems

The current selective review emphasizes the heterogeneity of antisocial behaviour in children and adolescents. It focuses on the development of children of the early-starter subtype of conduct disorder who are at high risk for the development of an antisocial personality disorder. Especially the autonomic stress system seems to have an important impact on symptoms and the prognosis of antisocial individuals. While autonomic hypoarousal and a reduced autonomic reagibility seem to be associated with more proactive aggressiveness and a negative outcome, increased autonomic arousal and reagibility might be related to reactive aggressiveness and constitutes possibly a protective trait. Data of the current psychophysiological and neuroendocrinological literature are summarized. Moreover, the impact of comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety disorders on dissocial development is illustrated. Particularly early diagnostic assessment of the individual's extent of trait anxiety might help to specify therapeutic opportunities and could thereby improve therapeutic efficiency.

Syntax of Emotional Narratives of Persons Diagnosed with Antisocial Personality

The aim of this study was to show some specificity of syntax of narratives created by persons diagnosed with antisocial personality. The author attempted to verify and supplement information that persons with antisocial personality have an incapacity for emotional language. Scores of 60 prisoners with high antisocial tendencies, 40 prisoners with low antisocial tendencies, and 100 men without the antisocial tendencies, were analyzed. The participants had to describe the situations of love, hate and anxiety inspired by the photographs. The narrative discourse was analyzed. The research was concentrated on syntactic elements. Comparisons between the three groups were conducted. The results show the differences between the antisocial inmates, non-antisocial inmates, and controls. In their emotional narratives, the antisocial individuals used more repetitions, pauses and negations. These linguistic characteristics are attributed to high activity, psychopathy and emotionality of persons diagnosed with antisocial personality.

Affiliation with antisocial peers, susceptibility to peer influence, and antisocial behavior during the transition to adulthood.

Developmental theories suggest that affiliation with deviant peers and susceptibility to peer influence are important contributors to adolescent delinquency, but it is unclear how these variables impact antisocial behavior during the transition to adulthood, a period when most delinquent individuals decline in antisocial behavior. Using data from a longitudinal study of 1,354 antisocial youth, the present study examined how individual variation in exposure to deviant peers and resistance to peer influence affect antisocial behavior from middle adolescence into young adulthood (ages 14 to 22 years). Whereas we find evidence that antisocial individuals choose to affiliate with deviant peers, and that affiliating with deviant peers is associated with an individual's own delinquency, these complementary processes of selection and socialization operate in different developmental periods. In middle adolescence, both selection and socialization serve to make peers similar in antisocial behavior, but from ages 16 to 20 years, only socialization appears to be important. After age 20, the impact of peers on antisocial behavior disappears as individuals become increasingly resistant to peer influence, suggesting that the process of desistance from antisocial behavior may be tied to normative changes in peer relations that occur as individuals mature socially and emotionally.

Antisocial behavior from a developmental psychopathology perspective

This paper reviews research on chronic patterns of antisocial behavior and places this research into a developmental psychopathology framework. Specifically, research suggests that there are at least three important pathways through which children and adolescents can develop severe antisocial behaviors. One group of youth shows antisocial behavior that begins in adolescence, and two groups show antisocial behavior that begins in childhood but differ on the presence or absence of callous-unemotional traits. In outlining these distinct pathways to antisocial behavior, we have tried to illustrate some key concepts from developmental psychopathology such as equifinality and multifinality, the importance of understanding the interface between normal and abnormal development, and the importance of using multiple levels of analyses to advance causal theories. Finally, we discuss how this development model can be used to enhance existing interventions for antisocial individuals.

Increased Volume of the Striatum in Psychopathic Individuals

The corpus striatum, comprised of the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus, plays an important role in reward processing and may be involved in the pathophysiology of antisocial behavior. Few studies have explored whether differences are present in the striatum of antisocial individuals. Here, we examine the structure of the striatum in relation to psychopathy. Using a case-control design, we examined the volume of the striatum in psychopathic individuals compared with control subjects matched for age, sex, ethnicity, and substance dependence. Twenty-two psychopathic individuals assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and 22 comparison subjects underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. Volumes of the left and right lenticular nucleus (putamen and globus pallidus), caudate head, and caudate body were assessed and the psychopathic and control groups were compared. Psychopathic individuals showed a 9.6% increase in striatum volumes. Analyses of subfactors of psychopathy revealed that caudate body volumes were primarily associated with the interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy, while caudate head volumes were primarily associated with the impulsive, stimulation-seeking features. These findings provide new evidence for differences in the striatum of psychopathic individuals. This structural difference may partially underlie the reward-seeking and decision-making deficits associated with psychopathy.

Neuronal correlates and serotonergic modulation of behavioural inhibition and reward in healthy and antisocial individuals

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are impulsive and show impairment in reinforcement processing. There is increasing evidence for a neurobiological basis of psychopathy, which shares some of the characteristics of ASPD, but research on the neuronal correlates of neuropsychological processes in ASPD remains limited. Furthermore, no research has examined the effects of serotonergic manipulation on brain activations in antisocial groups. In this study, 25 male participants with ASPD (mean age 42.1) and 32 male control participants (mean age 30.5; 25 participants providing usable scans) were randomly allocated to receive the 5-HT 2C-agonist mCPP or placebo. Participants were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a behavioural inhibition (Go/NoGo) and a reward task. In comparison to healthy controls the ASPD group showed reduced task related activations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) but increased signal in the pre/subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the Go/No-Go task and increased activation in OFC in the reward task. mCPP modulated brain responses in both tasks in the whole group. Interactions between group and drug occured in bilateral OFC, caudate and ventral pallidum during the reward task but no significant interactions were found in the Go/No-Go task. This suggests that ASPD involves altered serotonin modulation of reward, but not motor inhibition pathways. These findings suggest that ASPD involves altered DLPFC, ACC and OFC function. Altered serotonergic modulation of reward pathways seen in the ASPD group raises the possibility that targeting serotonin systems may be therapeutic.

From Genes to Brain to Antisocial Behavior

This review summarizes recent brain-imaging and molecular-genetic findings on antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior. A “genes to brain to antisocial behavior” model hypothesizes that specific genes result in structural and functional brain alterations that, in turn, predispose to antisocial behavior. For instance, a common polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A ( MAOA) gene has been associated with both antisocial behavior and also reductions in the volume of the amygdala and orbitofrontal (ventral prefrontal) cortex—brain structures that are found to be compromised in antisocial individuals. Here I highlight key brain regions implicated in antisocial behavior, with an emphasis on the prefrontal cortex, along with ways these areas give expression to risk factors for antisocial behavior. Environmental influences may alter gene expression to trigger the cascade of events that translate genes into antisocial behavior. Neuroethical considerations include how responsibility and punishment should be determined given the hypothesis that neural circuits underlying morality are compromised in antisocial individuals.

The Role of Neurobiological Deficits in Childhood Antisocial Behavior

Childhood-onset antisocial behavior is an important predictor of chronic and serious forms of antisocial behavior in later life. Both biological and social factors are involved in the development of abnormal behavior. We examine the underlying role of stress-response systems in the link between early social adversity and juvenile antisocial behavior, and propose that children with genetically and/or perinatally based neurobiological deficits have problems in activating these systems and therefore experience difficulties in regulating affect and behavior. Underactivity or attenuated reactivity of the stress-response systems may predispose antisocial individuals to seek out stimulation or take risks, and thereby explain deficits in learning and socialization. Further investigations of neurobiological functioning in antisocial children might not only indicate which children are more likely to persist in behaving antisocially but also guide the development of new interventions.

Brain abnormalities in antisocial individuals: implications for the law

With the increasing popularity in the use of brain imaging on antisocial individuals, an increasing number of brain imaging studies have revealed structural and functional impairments in antisocial, psychopathic, and violent individuals. This review summarizes key findings from brain imaging studies on antisocial/aggressive behavior. Key regions commonly found to be impaired in antisocial populations include the prefrontal cortex (particularly orbitofrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), superior temporal gyrus, amygdala-hippocampal complex, and anterior cingulate cortex. Key functions of these regions are reviewed to provide a better understanding on how deficits in these regions may predispose to antisocial behavior. Objections to the use of imaging findings in a legal context are outlined, and alternative perspectives raised. It is argued that brain dysfunction is a risk factor for antisocial behavior and that it is likely that imaging will play an increasing (albeit limited) role in legal decision-making.

The development of antisocial behavior: What can we learn from functional neuroimaging studies?

The recent development of low-risk imaging technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have had a significant impact on the investigation of psychopathologies in children and adolescents. This review considers what we can infer from fMRI work regarding the development of conduct disorder (CD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). We make two central assumptions that are grounded in the empirical literature. First, the diagnoses of CD and ODD identify individuals with heterogeneous pathologies; that is, different developmental pathologies can receive a CDD or ODD diagnosis. This is indicated by the comorbidities associated with CD/ODD, some of which appear to be mutually exclusive at the biological level (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and psychopathic tendencies). Second, two populations of antisocial individuals can be identified: those that show an increased risk for only reactive aggression and those that show an increased risk for both reactive and instrumental aggression. We review the fMRI data indicating that particular comorbidities of CD/ODD (i.e., mood and anxiety conditions such as childhood bipolar disorder and PTSD) are associated with either increased responsiveness of neural regions implicated in the basic response to threat (e.g., the amygdala) or decreased responsiveness in regions of frontal cortex (e.g., ventromedial frontal cortex) that are implicated in the regulation of the basic threat response. We suggest why such pathology would increase the risk for reactive aggression and, in turn, lead to the association with a CD/ODD diagnosis. We also review the literature on psychopathic tendencies, a condition where the individual is at significantly elevated risk for both reactive and instrumental aggression. We show that in individuals with psychopathic tendencies, the functioning of the amygdala in stimulus-reinforcement learning and of the ventromedial frontal cortex in the representation of reinforcement expectancies is impaired. We suggest why such pathology would increase the risk for reactive and instrumental aggression and thus also lead to the association with a CD/ODD diagnosis.

Brain abnormalities in antisocial, psychopathic individuals

Since the 19th century it has been speculated that structural and functional impairment of the prefrontal cortex predisposes to antisocial, psychopathic behaviour, but it is only in the last few years that brain imaging research has been utilised to scientifically test this hypothesis. This review summarises findings from brain imaging research on antisocial, psychopathic, and aggressive individuals. It is concluded that impairments in a frontal-temporal circuit (i.e. the ventral and lateral regions of the prefrontal cortex, superior temporal gyrus, amygdala-hippocampal complex, and the anterior cingulate cortex) may be associated with antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy. It is hypothesised that abnormalities in frontal-temporal-subcortical circuits may contribute, at least in part, to antisocial and psychopathic features including poor inhibitory control, reward dominance, lack of remorse, fearlessness, shallow affect, and impaired moral judgment. Studies with larger and more homogeneous antisocial groups are needed to further examine this hypothesis. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 63, 156-165.)