Left-hemisphere activation and deficient response modulation in psychopaths

Psychopathic offenders have difficulty processing contextual or secondary cues once they have initiated goal-directed behavior or allocated attention to a primary task. To test the hypothesis that this deficit in response modulation is specific to conditions in which psychopaths' left-hemisphere resources are engaged, we administered a serial recall task to 21 incarcerated psychopaths and 21 control subjects. Subjects were instructed to memorize eight words that were presented one at a time, each in one of the four corners of the visual display. Subjects' primary task was to recall the words in serial order. Then, without forewarning, they were asked to recall the words' locations. As predicted, psychopaths performed as well as control subjects in recalling words from the left and right spatial fields, but recalled significantly fewer locations from the right spatial field. Thus, psychopaths' deficient response modulation was specific to conditions in which their left-hemisphere resources were actively engaged.     

Facial affect recognition in criminal psychopaths

Prior studies provide consistent evidence of deficits for psychopaths in processing verbal emotional material but are inconsistent regarding nonverbal emotional material. To examine whether psychopaths exhibit general versus specific deficits in nonverbal emotional processing, 34 psychopaths and 33 nonpsychopaths identified with Hare's (R. D. Hare, 1991) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised were asked to complete a facial affect recognition test. Slides of prototypic facial expressions were presented. Three hypotheses regarding hemispheric lateralization anomalies in psychopaths were also tested (right-hemisphere dysfunction, reduced lateralization, and reversed lateralization). Psychopaths were less accurate than nonpsychopaths at classifying facial affect under conditions promoting reliance on right-hemisphere resources and displayed a specific deficit in classifying disgust. These findings demonstrate that psychopaths exhibit specific deficits in nonverbal emotional processing.     

Reward dominance and passive avoidance learning in adolescent psychopaths

This study tests predictions that adolescent psychopaths are hyperresponsive to rewards (Quay, 1988) and deficient in passive avoidance learning (Newman & Kosson, 1986). Forty male adolescent juvenile offenders were divided into psychopaths and nonpsychopaths using cluster analysis. Subjects were administered a passive avoidance learning task which required learning when to respond to cards associated with either reward or punishment. Results showed a greater responsivity to reward in psychopaths, with no group differences in passive avoidance errors. Results lend support to the view that psychopaths tend to focus on the prospect of reward under conditions of mixed incentives and, when sufficiently motivated, are capable of improved performance. Together with findings of recent psychophysiological studies, these results suggest that adolescent psychopaths may have latent abilities which could have treatment implications.The authors are greatly indebted to the boys and staff of the testing institution for their kind cooperation in this study. Thanks are also due to Dr. Rand Wilcox for statistical consultation and Cheryl Eurton and Marni Ayers for assistance in data coding.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Reduced lateralization in verbal dichotic listening in adolescent psychopaths

One possible explanation for previous findings of abnormal linguistic processing in psychopaths is that they are less lateralized for verbal processes. This study tests the hypothesis that adolescent psychopaths show evidence of reduced lateralization on a verbal dichotic listening task. Four self-report and behavioral measures of psychopathy were used to define psychopathy using cluster analytic techniques in 40 juvenile offenders aged 13 to 18 years. Psychopaths were found to have reduced ear asymmetries relative to nonpsychopaths, a result indicating reduced lateralization for verbal material. The effect does not appear to be mediated by group differences in age, ethnic background, IQ, overall performance, left-handedness, selective attention to one ear, or interhemispheric transfer deficits. This result suggests that the previous finding by Hare and McPherson is robust, provides some preliminary validity for the assessment of psychopathy before age 18, and indicates initial support for the utility of cluster analytic techniques in the assessment of psychopathy.     

P3 event-related potentials and childhood maltreatment in successful and unsuccessful psychopaths

Although P3 event-related potential abnormalities have been found in psychopathic individuals, it is unknown whether successful (uncaught) psychopaths and unsuccessful (caught) psychopaths show similar deficits. In this study, P3 amplitude and latency were assessed from a community sample of 121 male adults using an auditory three-stimulus oddball task. Psychopathy was assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (Hare, 2003) while childhood physical maltreatment was assessed using the Conflict Tactic Scale (Straus, 1979). Results revealed that compared to normal controls, unsuccessful psychopaths showed reduced parietal P3 amplitudes to target stimuli and reported experienced more physical abuse in childhood. In contrast, successful psychopaths exhibited larger parietal P3 amplitude and shorter frontal P3 latency to irrelevant nontarget stimuli than unsuccessful psychopaths. This is the first report of electrophysiological processing differences between successful and unsuccessful psychopaths, possibly indicating neurocognitive and psychosocial distinctions between these two subtypes 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.     

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.     

Reaction to punishment in extraverts and psychopaths: Implications for the impulsive behavior of disinhibited individuals

To explore the factors mediating impulsivity in the syndromes of disinhibition, we investigated the ability of extraverts and psychopaths to use signals for punishment to withhold maladaptive approach behavior under various incentive conditions. The results provide evidence that (a) in comparison to controls, extraverts and psychopaths fail to use cues for punishment to inhibit incorrect approach responses; (b) the deficient response inhibition of disinhibited subjects is specific to approach-avoidance situations; (c) under conditions involving monetary rewards and punishments, disinhibited subjects are less likely to slow down, and may even respond more quickly, following punishment; and (d) the tendency to speed up rather than slow down following punishment is associated with failure to learn from punishment. The results suggest that once focused on obtaining reward, extraverts and psychopaths display an active (disinhibited) as opposed to a passive (reflective) reaction to punishment and frustrative nonreward. This reaction to punishment appears to interfere with learning cues for punishment and may underlie the poor passive avoidance learning and impulsive behavior that characterize the syndromes of disinhibition.     

Rorschach oral dependency in psychopaths, sexual homicide perpetrators, and nonviolent pedophiles

Rorschach Oral Dependency scores (Masling, Rabie, & Blondheim, 1967) were compared among nonsexually offending psychopaths (NSOPs, n = 32), sexual homicide perpetrators (SHPs, n = 38), and non-violent pedophiles (NVPs, n = 39) as initially reported by Gacono, Meloy, and Bridges (2000). The aggressive special scores of Gacono and Meloy (1994; Gacono, unpublished doctoral dissertation, 1998) were also scored and compared with ROD scores. Consistent with theory and predictions, NVPs were found to have significantly higher levels of oral dependency scores than NSOPs or SHPs. Additionally, there was a high degree of association between oral dependency and aggression in the SHP and NSOP groups. These Rorschach differences support the validity of the ROD as an implicit measure of dependency and add to the understanding of the dynamics that fuel sexually deviant violence.     

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.     

The childhood experiences of psychopaths: a retrospective study of familial and societal factors.

We compared the childhood experiences of criminal psychopaths with those of criminal nonpsychopaths, to examine whether differences in either the type or intensity of adverse experience in childhood could be identified. One hundred and five prisoners, 50 psychopaths, and 55 nonpsychopaths were assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) semistructured interviews. Both assessment measures have been demonstrated to be reliable and valid instruments. File information from both adult and child services provided corroborative material. Factor analysis of the childhood experience variables revealed two distinct factors, familial and societal, both of which were highly correlated with adult psychopathy scores. These findings suggest that the experiences psychopaths have in childhood influence adult outcome.     

The perceived attractiveness and traits of the Dark Triad: Narcissists are perceived as hot,Machiavellians and psychopaths not

The current work investigated how a fictitious opposite-sex narcissist, Machiavellian, and psychopath are perceived in an experimental between subjects-design with three groups (total N = 184). Participants rated personality traits (Big Five and Agency/Communion) and different domains of interpersonal attraction (likeability, attractiveness, friend value, short-term mate value, long-term mate value) of the target persons. While all three target persons were not perceived particularly favorably by participants, the narcissist was consistently perceived more favorably than the Machiavellian and the psychopath who were perceived quite similarly to each other. It is discussed why narcissists may be judged more favorably and Machiavellians and psychopaths converge in people’s lay perceptions.