Treating criminal psychopaths in a therapeutic community program

A Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment program for adult male offenders is summarized and treatment outcome data are discussed. Psychopaths showed less clinical improvement, displayed lower levels of motivation and were discharged from the program earlier than non-psychopaths. There were significant positive treatment effects for the non-psychopaths and a mixed group. Psychopathy Checklist scores (Hare, 1985) consistently postdict and predict treatment outcome and attrition from the program.     

Aberrant neural processing of moral violations in criminal psychopaths

A defining characteristic of psychopathy is the willingness to intentionally commit moral transgressions against others without guilt or remorse. Despite this "moral insensitivity," the behavioral and neural correlates of moral decision-making in psychopathy have not been well studied. To address this issue, the authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record hemodynamic activity in 72 incarcerated male adults, stratified into psychopathic (n = 16) and nonpsychopathic (n = 16) groups based on scores from the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. D. Hare, 2003), while they made decisions regarding the severity of moral violations of pictures that did or did not depict moral situations. Consistent with hypotheses, an analysis of brain activity during the evaluation of pictures depicting moral violations in psychopaths versus nonpsychopaths showed atypical activity in several regions involved in moral decision-making. This included reduced moral/nonmoral picture distinctions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior temporal cortex in psychopaths relative to nonpsychopaths. In a separate analysis, the association between severity of moral violation ratings and brain activity across participants was compared in psychopaths versus nonpsychopaths. Results revealed a positive association between amygdala activity and severity ratings that was greater in nonpsychopaths than psychopaths, and a negative association between posterior temporal activity and severity ratings that was greater in psychopaths than nonpsychopaths. These results reveal potential neural underpinnings of moral insensitivity in psychopathy and are discussed with reference to neurobiological models of morality and psychopathy.     

Performance of criminal psychopaths on selected neuropsychological tests

Screening batteries of standard neuropsychological tests were administered to 2 different samples (Ns = 90 and 167) of male prison inmates. Scores on the revised Psychopathy Checklist were used to divide inmates in each sample into high, moderate, and low psychopathy groups. There were no group differences in test performance in either of the samples, even when the effects of self-reported psychopathology and substance abuse were taken into account. The overall prevalence of both test-specific and global neuropsychological impairment was low and did not vary significantly across the 3 groups. The results provide no support for traditional brain-damage explanations of psychopathy.     

Brain potentials implicate temporal lobe abnormalities in criminal psychopaths

Psychopathy is associated with abnormalities in attention and orienting. However, few studies have examined the neural systems underlying these processes. To address this issue, the authors recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while 80 incarcerated men, classified as psychopathic or nonpsychopathic via the Hare Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (R. D. Hare, 1991, 2003), completed an auditory oddball task. Consistent with hypotheses, processing of targets elicited larger frontocentral negativities (N550) in psychopaths than in nonpsychopaths. Psychopaths also showed an enlarged N2 and reduced P3 during target detection. Similar ERP modulations have been reported in patients with amygdala and temporal lobe damage. The data are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that psychopathy may be related to dysfunction of the paralimbic system--a system that includes parts of the temporal and frontal lobes.     

Selective attention and executive functions deficits among criminal psychopaths

The present study examined whether psychopaths exhibit deficits in selective attention and executive functions. Prison inmates were assigned to either a “psychopath” group or a “control” group according to their scores on the PCL‐R [Hare, 1991: Toronto, Multi‐Health Systems]. The two groups were compared in terms of performance on the following tests: (1) D‐II cancellation, (2) Porteus Maze, (3) Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting, (4) Stroop Color Word Interference, (5) Trail Making, and (6) Tower of London. The results support the hypothesis of selective attention and specific executive function deficits among psychopaths. Specifically, psychopaths' abilities to maintain a plan and to inhibit irrelevant information were inferior to those of control participants. Aggr. Behav. 29:393–405, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Facial affect recognition deficits: A potential contributor to aggression in psychotic illness

The current literature suggests a relationship between psychosis and the likelihood of engaging in aggressive behavior, though the factors involved are unclear. In this paper we use a social information processing framework to consider mediators of aggressive behavior in psychosis, especially facial affect recognition (FAR) deficits. The theoretical underpinnings of aggressive behavior are explored using the General Aggression Model (GAM) and FAR deficits are posited as a possible contributor to increased aggression in psychosis. Current research investigating the relationship between FAR, psychosis, and aggression is critically examined, and the role of potential confounding variables including positive symptoms, psychopathic personality traits, childhood trauma, and substance use briefly explored. In conclusion, we argue that socioemotional processing deficits, such as impaired FAR, are a fruitful area for research aimed at understanding, and hence reducing the risk of violence in psychosis.     

Neuroaffective processing in criminal psychopaths: brain event-related potentials reveal task-specific anomalies

This study aimed to confirm neuroaffective processing deficits in psychopaths by measuring late brain event-related potential (ERP) components and behavior in groups of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic inmates of a Singaporean prison while they performed two tasks. In a Categorization task, affective stimuli were task-relevant and required focused attention, while in a Vigilance task, affective pictures were presented in the background while participants discriminated vertical from oblique lines. Psychopaths showed differences in late positive ERPs that were sensitive to affective stimulus properties (valence and arousal) in the Categorization, but not in the Vigilance task, suggesting that only under conditions of focused attention did psychopaths show a neuroaffective processing deficit. In the Categorization task, psychopaths also showed a significantly larger prefrontal negative ERP (N350) whose amplitude correlated positively with the behavioral facet of psychopathy. In the Vigilance task, psychopaths both missed more targets and showed significantly smaller target-evoked parietal ERPs when viewing arousing pictures, suggesting their attentional focus was disrupted by the affective background.     

Recognition of facial expressions of emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths: Valence-specific hypothesis

IntroductionPsychopaths with the dominant reduced interpersonal and affective ability are characterized by the hypofunction of the right hemisphere, while psychopaths with the dominant impulsivity and antisocial behavior are characterized by the hyperfunction of the left hemisphere. The assumption is that this interhemispheric imbalance in a psychopath will also be reflected in the recognition of facial emotional expressions.ObjectiveThe objective is to examine the lateralization of facial expressions of positive and negative emotions as well as processing of facial expressions of emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths.Participants48 male participants age 24–40 were voluntarily recruited from the psychiatric hospital in Nis, Serbia.Stimuli48 black-and-white photographs in two separate tasks were used for the stimulation with central and lateral exposition.ResultsCriminality is related to the reduced recognition of facial expression of surprise and not necessarily to psychopathy, whereas reduced recognition of facial expression of fear is related to psychopathy, but not criminality. Valence-specific hypothesis has not been confirmed for positive and negative emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths and non-psychopaths, but it was shown that positive emotions are equally well processed in both hemispheres, whereas negative emotions are more successfully processed in the left hemisphere.     

Facial emotion recognition during pregnancy: Examining the effects of facial age and affect

It is vital that new mothers quickly and accurately recognize their child’s facial expressions. There is evidence that during pregnancy women develop enhanced processing of facial features associated with infancy and distress, as these cues signal vulnerability and are therefore biologically salient. In this study, 51 pregnant women at 17–36 weeks gestation watched neutral infant and adult faces gradually morph into either happy or sad expressions. We measured the speed and accuracy with which participants were able to recognize facial affect (happy vs. sad) across facial ages (infant vs. adult). Participants were faster and more accurate at recognizing happy versus sad faces and adult versus infant faces. We discuss how prior exposure to a certain face type may explain faster recognition. We also consider these results in the context of evidence indicating positive affect is recognized more quickly, but associated with slower attention and detection.     

Autonomic stress reactivity and executive functions in successful and unsuccessful criminal psychopaths from the community

A significant gap in the psychopathy literature is the lack of studies comparing "successful," nonconvicted psychopaths with "unsuccessful," convicted psychopaths. This study tested the hypothesis that successful psychopaths show increased autonomic stress reactivity and better neuropsychological function compared with unsuccessful psychopaths. A total of 26 controls, 16 unsuccessful psychopaths, and 13 successful psychopaths were assessed on psychophysiological measures recorded during an emotional manipulation, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Wechsler Memory Scale--Revised subtests, and childhood stressors. Compared with controls, unsuccessful psychopaths showed reduced cardiovascular stress reactivity. In contrast, successful psychopaths showed heightened reactivity, better WCST performance, and more parental absence than unsuccessful psychopaths and controls. The implications of these findings and the generalizability of existing psychopathy research are discussed.     

Facial affect recognition in college students with psychopathic traits: A comparison using tests matched in discriminating power

Research has provided inconsistent evidence for the relationship between psychopathy and facial affect recognition. We examined whether some of the previous findings could reflect a psychometric artifact in which deficits are more easily detected with very discriminating measures than with less discriminating measures, an issue not addressed in prior psychopathy studies. We developed measures of facial affect recognition matched in discriminating power and administered these measures to 194 college students who had also completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory. Results indicate that high levels of Coldheartedness were associated with poorer recognition of the specific emotion of disgust. These findings demonstrate that some affective processing deficits associated with psychopathic traits cannot be attributed to psychometric artifacts.     

Facial emotion recognition in violent men

The goal of this study was to explore the ability of violent men to recognise facial affect. In contrast to traditional approaches to this research question, we took the effects of the models' sex and different types of violent behaviour into consideration. Data obtained from 71 violent men revealed that they recognised facial expressions of fear (p = .019) and disgust (p = .013) more accurately when displayed by female than male models. The opposite was found for angry faces (p = .006), while the models' sex did not affect the recognition of sad, happy and surprised facial expressions or neutral faces. Furthermore, sexual coercion perpetrators were more accurate than other violent men in the recognition of female facial disgust (p = .006). These results are discussed in the context of social learning theory, and the hypothesis that female facial expressions of disgust could be subtle cues to their sexual infidelity that motivate sexual coercion in some men.     

Perceptual fluency and affect without recognition

A dichotic listening task was used to investigate the affect-without-recognition phenomenon. Subjects performed a distractor task by responding to the information presented in one ear while ignoring the target information presented in the other ear. The subjects' recognition of and affect toward the target information as well as toward foils was measured. The results offer evidence for the affect-without-recognition phenomenon. Furthermore, the data suggest that the subjects' affect toward the stimuli depended primarily on the extent to which the stimuli were perceived as familiar (i.e., subjective familiarity), and this perception was influenced by the ear in which the distractor or the target information was presented. These data are interpreted in terms of current models of recognition memory and hemispheric lateralization.