Psychopathic Behavior Research Articles

Diminished cooperativeness of psychopaths in a prisoner's dilemma game yields higher rewards.

Maladaptive social behavior is one of the defining characteristics of psychopathic personality disorder. Nevertheless, maladaptive social behavior has only rarely been observed among psychopaths in experimentally controlled situations. The authors assessed the behavior of criminal psychopaths from high-security psychiatric hospitals in a computer simulation of a social dilemma situation. The psychopaths showed a markedly higher proneness to competitive (i.e., noncooperative) behavior than did healthy adults from the general population. The odds ratio between defection and being a psychopath was estimated at 7.86 in the sample. The probability to choose selfish instead of cooperative behavior was significantly linked to the following subscales of the Psychopathy Personality Inventory-Revised (S. O. Lilienfeld & M. R. Widows, 2005): rebellious nonconformity, Machiavellian egocentricity, and the total score. On average, the psychopathic participants accumulated higher gain and more strongly exploited their counterpart than did the healthy participants.

Electroencephalographic Cerebral Dysrhythmic Abnormalities in the Trinity of Nonepileptic General Population, Neuropsychiatric, and Neurobehavioral Disorders

Electroencephalographic Cerebral Dysrhythmic Abnormalities in the Trinity of Nonepileptic General Population, Neuropsychiatric, and Neurobehavioral Disorders

Electroencephalographic Cerebral Dysrhythmic Abnormalities in the Trinity of Nonepileptic General Population, Neuropsychiatric, and Neurobehavioral Disorders

Subclinical electroencephalographic epileptiform discharges in neurobehavioral disorders are not uncommon. The clinical significance and behavioral, diagnostic, and therapeutic implications of this EEG cerebral dysrhythmia have not been fully examined. Currently the only connotation for distinctive epileptiform electroencephalographic patterns is epileptic seizures. Given the prevailing dogma of not treating EEGs, these potential aberrations are either disregarded as irrelevant or are misattributed to indicate epilepsy. This article reappraises the literature on paroxysmal EEG dysrhythmia in normative studies of the "healthy" nonepileptic general populations, neuropsychiatry, and in neurobehavioral disorders. These EEG aberrations may be reflective of underlying morpho-functional brain abnormalities that underpin various neurobehavioral disturbances.

La neuropsicología forense ante el reto de la relación entre cognición y emoción en la psicopatía

The relationship between frontal lobe damage and criminality is especially complex. The neural substrates of psychopathic behavior seem to involve structural and functional abnormalities in the frontal lobes and the limbic system. AIM. To analyze the repercussions that brain structural and functional abnormalities in psychopathic individuals may have for forensic neuropsychology. Consistent evidence indicate that response inhibition problems in psychopathic subjects are linked to structural or functional damage in the frontal cortex. Furthermore, the prefrontal cortex, along with the amygdala and the hippocampus forms the limbic system, which is an important neural substrate of emotion processing; therefore the psychopath's capacity of affective processing could also be impaired. The theoretical frameworks of the somatic marker and mirror neuron hypotheses, along with the empirical study of executive functions may contribute to explain the inability of the psychopathic subjects to feel empathy, which is one of the main inhibitors of violence and antisocial behavior. The relationship between frontal lobe dysfunction and antisocial behavior arises an important legal issue. In order to consider some type of minor liability in the case of psychopaths it is suggested to gather further research data about the relationship between frontal lobe dysfunction and the ability to inhibit antisocial behavior by making an adequate use of empathy and emotional ties.

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.)

Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 2007, number 4 Victims of our brain: born or made a criminal?

Forensic psychology is a broad spectrum of topics related to both psychology and law issues. One of the more clinical issues involved in forensic psychology is the concept of criminal behaviour, in particular psychopathy. Although the construct of psychopathy has been the subject of a great deal of research, much still remains unclear. Biological factors such as genetics and HPA axis (re)activity seem to play an important role in the development of criminal psychopathic behaviour. The relationship between violence recidivism and psychopathy, and the fact that psychopaths lack moral emotions are important risk factors in the maintenance of criminal behaviour. Given the heterogeneity of psychopathic offenders, the effect of treatment still remains unclear. Consequently, the question arises whether we all are victims of our brain and, thus, treatment of criminal behaviour is useless. Or whether it is possible to alter criminal behaviour? In addition to this discussion, an overview of the content of this special issue will be presented. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 63, 112-116.)

Neurobiology of Escalated Aggression and Violence

Psychopathological violence in criminals and intense aggression in fruit flies and rodents are studied with novel behavioral, neurobiological, and genetic approaches that characterize the escalation from adaptive aggression to violence. One goal is to delineate the type of aggressive behavior and its escalation with greater precision; second, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and brainstem structures emerge as pivotal nodes in the limbic circuitry mediating escalated aggressive behavior. The neurochemical and molecular work focuses on the genes that enable invertebrate aggression in males and females and genes that are expressed or suppressed as a result of aggressive experiences in mammals. The fruitless gene, immediate early genes in discrete serotonin neurons, or sex chromosome genes identify sexually differentiated mechanisms for escalated aggression. Male, but not female, fruit flies establish hierarchical relationships in fights and learn from previous fighting experiences. By manipulating either the fruitless or transformer genes in the brains of male or female flies, patterns of aggression can be switched with males using female patterns and vice versa. Work with Sts or Sry genes suggests so far that other genes on the X chromosomes may have a more critical role in female mouse aggression. New data from feral rats point to the regulatory influences on mesocortical serotonin circuits in highly aggressive animals via feedback to autoreceptors and via GABAergic and glutamatergic inputs. Imaging data lead to the hypothesis that antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior may in part be attributable to impairments in some of the brain structures (dorsal and ventral PFC, amygdala, and angular gyrus) subserving moral cognition and emotion.

Startle modulation in non-incarcerated men and women with psychopathic traits

Past research has demonstrated that individuals with psychopathic characteristics are under-responsive to aversive stimuli, however, much of this work has failed to include non-incarcerated samples, or to examine gender differences in this relationship. Additionally, few studies have examined the role of specific personality characteristics, as they relate to both psychopathic behavior and emotional responsiveness. The current study assessed emotional modulation of the startle response in a community sample of 108 men and women (99 with usable startle data) during perception of emotion-laden photographs. Consistent with previous work, men reporting high levels of psychopathy failed to show the typical increase in the startle response when exposed to aversive photographs, but only when responses were elicited relatively early in picture viewing (i.e., 2.0 s as compared to 4.5 s post-photograph onset). Additionally, both genders showed a significant effect of harm avoidance and anxiety on modulation of the startle response, such that individuals reporting low levels of each trait failed to show significant responses to aversive photographs. These results suggest that while deficits in emotional processing extend to non-incarcerated samples, the relationship may be influenced by additional factors including gender, personality, and attributes related to incarceration.

Personality Disorder Symptomatology and Neuropsychological Functioning in Closed Head Injury

Personality Disorder Symptomatology and Neuropsychological Functioning in Closed Head Injury

WK2 THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF EARLY PSYCHOSIS

Neurobiology of psychopathy is of interest, not only because neural underpinnings of psychopathy remain obscure, but also because psychopaths may provide a model to study violent behavior, neurology of morals and impaired decision-making. Medial temporal lobe pathology has been suggested to be a part of the neural systems dysfunction which manifests as violent and psychopathic behavior. Yet, so far no sound evidence of neuroanatomical correlates for psychopathic behavior has been found. In this study regional hippocampal volumes were measured using magnetic resonance imaging in 18 habitually violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder and type 2 alcoholism (derived from forensic psychiatric evaluation). The regional volumes along the anteroposterior axis of the hippocampus were correlated with the subjects’ degree of psychopathy as evaluated by the Psyhopathy Checklist-Revised. Strong negative correlations, up to −0.79, were observed, among the study subjects, between the psychopathy scores and the posterior half of the hippocampi bilaterally. These data are in accordance with experimental studies proposing that lesions of the dorsal hippocampus impair acquisition of conditioned fear, and with theories on psychopathology according to which one of the central features in the birth of psychopathy is a deficit in acquisition of conditioned fear.

Divided Visual Attention and Left Hemisphere Activation Among Psychopathic and Nonpsychopathic Offenders

Recent divided attention studies suggest the impulsive antisocial behavior of psychopaths may be related to deficient processing of information under conditions that place substantial demands on left-hemisphere-specific processing resources (left hemisphere activation (LHA) hypothesis; D. S. Kosson [1996, 1998]). To examine performance under conditions constraining eye movements and covert shifts of attention, 26 psychopathic and 46 nonpsychopathic inmates completed a divided attention task in which lateralized stimuli appeared briefly and simultaneously in the left visual field (LVF) and right visual field (RVF) of a monitor. Targets were either presented primarily in the RVF to induce LHA or were equiprobable in LVF and RVF to promote equal activation (EA) of left and right hemisphere resources. Psychopaths were less accurate than nonpsychopaths only under LHA conditions; within-group comparisons also revealed a substantial decrement from EA to LHA only in psychopaths. Thus, psychopaths’ performance deficits were specific to conditions priming left hemisphere resources asymmetrically.

Gender Differences in Delinquent Behavior among Korean Adolescents

The present study examined gender differences in the rate, type, and relevant variables underlying delinquent behavior among South Korean adolescents. Although female delinquency is increasing and becoming more violent in South Korea, the rate of delinquent behavior was found to be much lower among female than among male adolescents and female adolescents were much less involved in antisocial, aggressive, and psychopathic delinquent behavior compared to male adolescents. Moreover, compared to female delinquent adolescents, male delinquent adolescents were found to have greater tendencies towards antisocial personality, sociability, being sexually abused, and alcohol and drug use. In contrast, female delinquent adolescents had a greater tendency toward depression than male delinquent adolescents. No gender differences were found in the association between family dynamics and delinquent behaviors. Age and antisocial personality had the most significant total effects on male delinquent behavior. In contrast, alcohol and drug abuse was the strongest contributing factors in female delinquent behavior, although the level of alcohol and drug abuse was much higher among male adolescents than among female adolescents.

The relation between salivary cortisol, callous‐unemotional traits, and conduct problems in an adolescent non‐referred sample

Previous research has suggested that adult psychopathic behavior and child callous-unemotional (CU) traits are uniquely related to low emotional reactivity. Salivary cortisol is a promising biological measure of emotional reactivity that has been relatively overlooked in research on CU traits and antisocial behavior. The current study examined for gender differences in the relation between resting salivary cortisol levels and CU traits in a non-referred adolescent sample. Salivary testosterone levels were assessed to provide discriminant validity for cortisol analyses and were not expected to bear a relation to CU traits. An extreme groups strategy was used to recruit 108 adolescents (53 male, 55 female) from a larger screening sample who exhibited various combinations of low and high scores on parent-report measures of CU traits and conduct problems. Resting saliva samples were assayed for cortisol and testosterone levels using a radioimmunoassay procedure. Consistent with prediction, male participants exhibiting elevated CU traits were uniquely characterized by low cortisol levels relative to male comparison groups (p<.05). Testosterone levels did not differentiate groups and no hormone effects were found for female participants. The current findings build upon recent research in suggesting that low cortisol may be a biological marker for male CU traits.

Stress in expatriates.

With economic globalization, the rate and effects of culture shock stress in expatriates and their families are expected to increase. The stressor may occur from the micro-environment, the macro-environment, or the mega-environment. The effects of stress are frequently due to predictable reactions such as insecurity, distress, and homesickness. These symptoms can progress to more severe psychosomatic symptoms, including depressive reactions and overt psychopathic behavior. Cross-cultural training programs are currently the best preventive strategy for culture shock and subsequent stress; however, the true efficacy of these programs is not well characterized. Substance abuse is probably a significant underlying problem for international business travelers; however, the true magnitude and effects of this issue are not well characterized in the expatriate community. There are substantial opportunities for additional medical research in these areas.

Two Approaches to Parsing the Heterogeneity of Psychopathy.

High crime rates, growing jail populations, and the escalating costs of incarceration have placed pressure on researchers and clinicians to better understand persistent criminal offenders (Beck & Gilliard, 1995). One such group of particular interest to forensic psychologists is psychopathic individuals. To date, there exists a significant body of literature suggesting that this group engages in a wide variety of antisocial acts and demonstrates limited change following rehabilitative interventions (Hart & Hare, 1997; Hart, 1998). As a result, psychopathic individuals represent a large cost to society, and psychologists are interested in finding effective interventions to manage their problematic behaviors. In this paper, we suggest that psychologists focus on more specific manifestations and etiologies of psychopathy in order to develop effective interventions. We believe that such a focus would involve (a) questioning the assumption that psychopathy (as measured by Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised; PCL-R; 1991) is an etiologically homogeneous entity, (b) identifying etiologically distinct variants of PCL-R psychopathy for study, and (c) specifying etiological mechanisms that may suggest tangible treatment targets. We also discuss two different, but compatible, methods we believe may be helpful in identifying etiological variants of PCL-R psychopathy: (a) using general personality theory to identify maladaptive traits that may produce psychopathic behavior and (b) identifying specific bio-psychological deficits capable of accounting for psychopathic behavior.

What differentiates anal rapists from vaginal rapists?

During the daily assessment routine of the Federal Documentation Centre for Sexual Offenders, important differences between rapists who commit their offense through anal penetration and other rapists became apparent. The hypothesis following these findings assumed that these and offenders would show a more sexualized behaviour than other rapists. The following differences between these two groups could be shown: violence and hypersexual desire. And rapists show a significantly higher degree in both areas, whereas, on the other side, no difference concerning psychopathic behaviour of the offenders could be proved. The preliminary conclusions that could be drawn according to these results express that anal rapists are more sexualized and, furthermore, they have a more obsessive sex life.

Brain circuits involved in emotional learning in antisocial behavior and social phobia in humans

While psychopaths (PP) lack anticipatory fear, social phobics (SP) are characterized by excessive fear. Criminal PP, SP and healthy controls (HC) participated in differential aversive delay conditioning with neutral faces as conditioned (CS) and painful pressure as unconditioned stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed differential activation in the limbic–prefrontal circuit (orbitofrontal cortex, insula, anterior cingulate, amygdala) in the HC. By contrast, the PP displayed brief amygdala, but no further brain activation. The SP showed increased activity to the faces in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex already during habituation. Thus, a hypoactive frontolimbic circuit may represent the neural correlate of psychopathic behavior, whereas an overactive frontolimbic system may underly social fear.

Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 3rd ed.

Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 3rd ed.

Criterion validity of the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory Social Symptomatology Scale in a prison sample.

The 36-item, self-report Holden Psychological Screening Inventory (HPSI; R. R. Holden, 1996) and the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991) were administered to 214 male, adult prison inmates in Canadian federal correctional facilities. The 12-item HPSI Social Symptomatology scale, a measure of antisocial behavior, demonstrated a large effect size in significantly differentiating between PCL-R-identified psychopaths and nonpsychopaths. HPSI scales not theoretically related to psychopathic behavior showed no such significant effects. Findings are interpreted as supporting the criterion validity of the Social Symptomatology scale and suggest that this brief, self-report screen has research and clinical merit.

Social rank, shame and anger in primary and secondary psychopaths

This study compared primary and secondary psychopaths (Blackburn, 1975 and Blackburn, 1998) in their perceptions of social rank, internal shame, angriness and intensity of anger in response to provocation. Fifty male mentally disordered offenders with the legal classification 'psychopathic disorder' were randomly sampled from a high-security (Special) hospital population and at interview a set of questionnaires was administered to each. Primary psychopaths perceived themselves to be significantly higher in social rank than secondary psychopaths, lower in shame, and lower in ratings of angriness, self-blame and anger towards others. A significant association was found between social rank and anger in response to provocation and an inverse relationship between social rank and both shame and angriness. Regression analyses revealed that social rank and self-esteem best predicted variance in anger intensity to provocation, controlling for antisocial personality deviation. Primary and secondary psychopaths differed significantly,therefore, in their self-evaluative and social evaluative processes. The key differences lay in social rank evaluations and shame. Primary psychopaths assume dominance and threaten others who challenge them, while secondary psychopaths assume defensive, subordinate positions within a psychopathy hierarchy, seek dominance, but are sensitive to attacks from above and below. Findings provide preliminary support for an evolutionary perspective on the role of social hierarchies in psychopathic behaviour.