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Theory of mind and psychopathy: Can psychopathic individuals read the 'language of the eyes'?
Abstract
There have been suggestions that Theory of Mind (ToM) impairment might lead to aggressive behaviour and psychopathy. Psychopathic and matched non-psychopathic individuals, as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist [The Hare Psychopath Checklist-Revised, 1991] completed the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' ToM Test [Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1997;38:813]. This test requires the self-paced identification of mental states from photographs of the eye region alone. Results indicated that the psychopathic individuals did not present with any generalised impairment in ToM. The data are discussed with reference to the putative neural system mediating performance on this task and models of psychopathy.
... Thus, children with elevated CU traits may be perceived by others as being poorer in recognizing others' emotions, even if they do not view themselves as being deficient, and this may theoretically explain a similar failure to find such associations in research on adults, wherein self-report measures of emotional recognition are used (see Blair, 2005 for a review ;Igoumenou et al., 2017;Richell et al., 2003). ...
... However, these findings are also inconsistent and depend on the type of task used. For example, several studies have reported intact perspective-taking or ToM in youth with elevated CU traits (Jones et al., 2010;Lockwood et al., 2013b;Schwenck et al., 2012), like findings in adults with elevated psychopathic traits (see Blair, 2005 for a review; Igoumenou et al., 2017;Richell et al., 2003). However, tasks that assess emotional recognition are considerably less clear. ...
... In addition, tasks examining recognition of simple (e.g., sad, angry) versus complex (e.g., shame, guilt) emotions show poorer recognition of complex emotions only in children with elevated CU traits between the ages of 10-12 (Sharp et al., 2015). These inconsistent findings from samples of children and adolescents are in notable contrast to studies in adults, in which, elevated CU traits, as part of the broader dimension of psychopathy, are consistently unrelated to problems in cognitive empathy, as measured by emotional recognition, perspective-taking, and ToM (see Blair, 2005 for a review; Igoumenou et al., 2017;Richell et al., 2003;see Wilson et al., 2011 for a meta-analysis). For example, Blair's review (2005) found no substantive evidence for associations between CU traits or psychopathy and ToM deficits in adult samples, and a more recent meta-analysis by Wilson and colleagues (2011) reported that, across 22 studies and 23 independent effect sizes, only very small positive correlations were found between CU traits/psychopathy and emotional recognition deficits across several emotions (e.g., happiness, disgust, surprise), though the largest were shown for fear (r w = .10) ...
... Within the Zipper model, cognitive and affective processes conjointly interact to build up ("zipping up") to mature empathic behavior, whereas the "unzipping" of these processes results in either hindered empathic behavior or its disappearance entirely. Psychopaths are known to have little or no empathy-related affective responses, while, simultaneously, they are not necessarily being disturbed in their cognitive processing (Richell et al., 2003;Blair, 2007). Their poor empathic behavior might be due, in part, to deficits in facial emotional information processing, although there are debates over whether these deficits stem from either innate deficient amygdala processing (Blair, 2005a, b) or the failure to allocate attention to stimuli that are considered of secondary importance (response modulation theory of psychopathy; see: Newman and Lorenz, 2003;Baskin-Sommers et al., 2009). ...
... In contrast with these findings, Fonagy (2003) postulated in adults who lacked the ability to inhibit violent behavior due to either a disturbed or absent mentalization, that is, the capacity to both recognize and attribute mental states to others in different situations by using contextual information that may have evolved from a brain system representing actions that lead to successful social adaptation (Frith and Frith, 1999;Achim et al., 2011). Although mentalizing includes cognitive parts of empathy, it could not be established that psychopathic individuals present a generalized impairment in the cognitive components of empathy (Richell et al., 2003). Several other studies of this kind led Blair (2007) to conclude that there is no evidence-base to suggest that psychopathic individuals are impaired in their Theory of Mind, that is, the cognitive ability to conceive of the mental states of others (Baron Cohen et al., 1985). ...
... Harris and Picchioni (2013) mentioned in their review three studies that showed impaired facial emotion recognition in psychopathic patients (Munro et al., 2007;Hastings et al., 2008;Blair et al., 2004). On the contrary, in three other studies that they reviewed (Richell et al., 2003;Dolan and Fullam, 2004;Glass and Newman, 2006), no differences in emotion recognition accuracy could be established between high and low psychopathy ratings. Harris and Picchioni (2013) also noted that some of the methodological inconsistencies between the studies cited also prompted cautious interpretation of the findings. ...
Psychopathy is a neurodevelopmental disorder that has a highly deleterious effect upon both individuals and society at large. Psychopaths grossly neglect and disrespect the interests of others. Their antisocial behavior is thought to originate from a lack of empathy. However, empathy is multidimensional in nature, as evidenced by the considerable heterogeneity in extant theorizing on the subject. Here, we present the "Zipper model of empathy" that reconsiders how both its affective and cognitive components converge in mature empathic behavior. Furthermore, the Zipper model of empathy is expedient for explaining the empathy deficits in psychopathy, insofar as it brings together current theories on the dysfunctional affective components of empathy, violence inhibition, and automatic versus goal-directed attention. According to the literature, the neurobiological underpinnings of these theories are amygdala-centered; however, this article traces this specifically to the basolateral and central amygdala subregions. When viewed together, the cognitive and affective components of empathy are zipped together in a natural fashion in healthy empathic behavior, whereas psychopaths leave the zipper substantially unzipped in pursuit of their purely self-centered goals.
... Thus, children with elevated CU traits may be perceived by others as being poorer in recognizing others' emotions, even if they do not view themselves as being deficient, and this may theoretically explain a similar failure to find such associations in research on adults, wherein self-report measures of emotional recognition are used (see Blair, 2005 for a review;Igoumenou et al., 2017;Richell et al., 2003). ...
... However, these findings are also inconsistent and depend on the type of task used. For example, several studies have reported intact perspective-taking or ToM in youth with elevated CU traits (Jones et al., 2010;Lockwood et al., 2013b;Schwenck et al., 2012), like findings in adults with elevated psychopathic traits (see Blair, 2005 for a review; Igoumenou et al., 2017;Richell et al., 2003). However, tasks that assess emotional recognition are considerably less clear. ...
General exam for PhD candidacy in clinical psychology at LSU
... However, there are also studies in which no relations or negative associations were found between both affective and cognitive empathy and psychopathy Domes et al., 2013). So, while most research found no lack of cognitive empathy in psychopathic individuals (R. Blair et al., 1996;Dolan & Fullam, 2004;Richell et al., 2003), while but did find a lack of ToM in psychopaths. Since this lack concerned negative emotions such as fear and sadness, this finding would now be interpreted as evidence for a diminished affective ToM in psychopathy. ...
... ToM), then findings are less surprising. Previous studies have found that cognitive ToM is not altered in individuals with psychopathic characteristics (e.g., R. Blair et al., 1996;Dolan & Fullam, 2004;Richell et al., 2003). Yet, affective ToM was affected in the study by Dolan and Fullam (2004). ...
Psychopathy is found to be associated with aggression. However, the role of “understanding the mental states of others” in this relation is not clearly understood yet. The current study aimed to increase our understanding of a specific ability of understanding the mental state of others, namely recognizing a faux pas, and understand the relation of this “social misstep” in self-reported aggressive behavior. The sample consisted of 105 individuals from the community (both males and females) who were tested with the Faux Pas test and several self-report questionnaires assessing triarchic psychopathic personality traits and aggression. We found a positive relationship between the triarchic constructs and self-reported proactive and reactive aggression. Additionally, although all psychopathy constructs were negatively related to self-reported empathy, only the boldness trait was negatively associated with faux pas recognition. No mediation effect of faux pas on the relation between psychopathy and aggression was found. Current findings underline the importance of differentiating different Theory of Mind and empathic abilities in relation to psychopathy and aggression, which is essential to develop effective interventions.
... Research using behavioral tasks shows a divergence between cognitive and affective subcomponents of cognitive empathy. Across studies, neither youth with CU nor adults with psychopathy showed neural differences or behavioral deficits in cognitive ToM, suggesting intact cognitive ToM in psychopathy (65)(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79). By contrast, the evidence regarding the relationship between affective perspective-taking/ToM and psychopathy is more mixed. ...
... To date, some studies reported that individuals with psychopathy were able to successfully assess another agent's affective state during affective perspective-taking/ToM tasks (70,71,73,74,76,79), suggesting that individuals in the psychopathic subtype did not display deficits in affective perspectivetaking/ToM. Conversely, other studies reported psychopathyrelated behavioral abnormalities during affective perspectivetaking/ToM tasks (64,77,78,80,81). ...
Cognitive empathy allows individuals to recognize and infer how others think and feel in social situations and provides a foundation for the formation and maintenance of mutually constructive relationships. It may seem intuitive to assume that individuals who engage in antisocial behavior, who disregard the rights of others, might have problems with cognitive empathy. However, careful examination of the literature suggests that any dysfunction in cognitive empathy associated with antisociality varies by subtype of antisocial individual and is specific to subcomponents of cognitive empathy. In this review, we (1) briefly define subtypes of antisocial individuals (“psychopathic” vs. “antisocial-only”), (2) summarize specific components of cognitive empathy; (3) review existing literature examining cognitive empathy through questionnaires, behavioral tasks, and neuroimaging within different antisocial subtypes; and (4) discuss the limitations of the current research and potential future directions. Individuals in the psychopathic subtype fail to implicitly engage in cognitive empathy, and potentially lack insight into this issue reflected in no self-reported problems with cognitive empathy, but show an ability to engage in cognitive empathy when explicitly required. Individuals in the antisocial-only subtype appear able to engage in cognitive empathy, showing no differences on questionnaire or behavioral tasks that tap explicit cognitive empathy, but may display subtle difficulties accurately inferring (affective theory of mind) the emotions of others. We end the review by noting areas for future research, including the need to: (1) document the patterns of equifinality that exist across levels of analysis for these antisocial subtypes; (2) examine the temporality of empathy and antisociality development; (3) carefully consider and label subcomponents of cognitive empathy in research on antisocial behavior; and (4) investigate the intersection among environmental experiences, cognitive empathy, and antisocial behavior.
... Ted Bundy, the serial killer, for example, was able to convey a charismatic and intelligent persona in his initial interactions with women (Terranova, 2020). Not surprisingly, psychopaths present with intact scores on "theory of mind" tests that assess mental state inference skills (Richell et al., 2003). This kind of representational dishonesty may be expected with the advent of vocal motor control (Locke, 2008); note, however, that those speakers that produce near perfect vocal expressions (of emotion, intention, attitude, etc.) are in effect demonstrating enhanced vocal motor function and cognitive skills in perspective taking. ...
... Individuals high on psychopathy have largely been considered to have intact ToM. When using Happé 's advanced test of ToM, the RMET, and a comprehensive battery of ToM tasks ranging from false belief to faux pax tasks, incarcerated offenders high on psychopathy were found not to have any deficits on these tasks when compared to incarcerated controls (Blair et al., 1996;Dolan and Fullam, 2004;Richell et al., 2003). However, in a recent study, primary and secondary psychopathy were found to correlate with deficits in ToM, using a collection of tasks indexing perspective taking in different ways, such as the RMET, the Situational Test of Emotion Management, Situational Test of Emotion Understanding, the Hinting Task, and the Imposing Memory Test (Vonk et al., 2015). ...
Ho, M.H., Kemp, B.T., Eisenbarth, H. & Rijnders, R.J.P. Designing a neuroclinical assessment of empathy deficits in psychopathy based on the Zipper Model of Empathy. NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV REV YY(Y) XXX-XXX, 2023. The heterogeneity of the literature on empathy highlights its multidimensional and dynamic nature and affects unclear descriptions of empathy in the context of psychopathology. The Zipper Model of Empathy integrates current theories of empathy and proposes that empathy maturity is dependent on whether contextual and personal factors push affective and cognitive processes together or apart. This concept paper therefore proposes a comprehensive battery of physiological and behavioral measures to empirically assess empathy processing according to this model with an application for psychopathic personality. We propose using the following measures to assess each component of this model: (1) facial electromyography; (2) the Emotion Recognition Task; (3) the Empathy Accuracy task and physiological measures (e.g., heart rate); (4) a selection of Theory of Mind tasks and an adapted Dot Perspective Task, and; (5) an adjusted Charity Task. Ultimately, we hope this paper serves as a starting point for discussion and debate on defining and assessing empathy processing, to encourage research to falsify and update this model to improve our understanding of empathy.
... Does it require the participants to differentiate between one and other's mental state? Blair et al. (1996) Story interpretation Mental state interferences from stories Yes Yes Richell et al. (2003) RMET ...
This meta-analysis aims to examine the relationship between psychopathic traits and theory of mind (ToM), which is classically and broadly defined as competency in representing and attributing mental states such as emotions, intentions, and beliefs to others. Our search strategy gathered 142 effect sizes, from 42 studies, with a total sample size of 7463 participants. Random effects models were used to analyze the data. Our findings suggested that psychopathic traits are associated with impaired ToM task performance. This relationship was not moderated by age, population, psychopathy measurement (self-report versus clinical checklist) or conceptualization, or ToM task type (cognitive versus affective). The effect also remained significant after excluding tasks that did not require the participant to 1) mentalize or 2) differentiate self and other perspectives. However, interpersonal/affective traits were associated with a more pronounced impairment in ToM task performance compared to lifestyle/antisocial traits. Future research should investigate the effects of distinct psychopathy facets that will allow for a more precise understanding of the social-cognitive bases of relevant clinical presentations in psychopathy.
... Accordingly, the work with fine-grained dissection of the mentalising components will advance our understanding of mentalising during live social interaction . Moreover, previous research on the inter-individual variability in mentalising ability has typically focused on neurological and psychiatric disorders (Kerr et al., 2003;Richell et al., 2003;Snowden et al., 2003;Stuss et al., 2001). While confirming the importance of mentalising in social life, substantial mentalising differences also exist in healthy adults. ...
Mentalising ability, indexed as the ability to understand others' beliefs, feelings, intentions, thoughts and traits, is a pivotal and fundamental component of human social cognition. However, considering the multifaceted nature of mentalising ability, little research has focused on characterising individual differences in different mentalising components. And even less research has been devoted to investigating how the variance in the structural and functional patterns of the amygdala and hippocampus, two vital subcortical regions of the "social brain", are related to inter-individual variability in mentalising ability. Here, as a first step toward filling these gaps, we exploited inter-subject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA) to assess relationships between amygdala and hippocampal morphometry (surface-based multivariate morphometry statistics, MMS), connectivity (resting-state functional connectivity, rs-FC) and mentalising ability (interactive mentalisation questionnaire [IMQ] scores) across the participants (N = 24). In IS-RSA, we proposed a novel pipeline, that is, computing patching and pooling operations-based surface distance (CPP-SD), to obtain a decent representation for high-dimensional MMS data. On this basis, we found significant correlations (i.e., second-order isomorphisms) between these three distinct modalities, indicating that a trinity existed in idiosyncratic patterns of brain morphometry, connectivity and mentalising ability. Notably, a region-related mentalising specificity emerged from these associations: self-self and self-other mentalisation are more related to the hippocampus, while other-self mentalisation shows a closer link with the amygdala. Furthermore, by utilising the dyadic regression analysis, we observed significant interactions such that subject pairs with similar morphometry had even greater mentalising similarity if they were also similar in rs-FC. Altogether, we demonstrated the feasibility and illustrated the promise of using IS-RSA to study individual differences, deepening our understanding of how individual brains give rise to their mentalising abilities.
... También se ha sugerido compromiso del lóbulo temporal y del sistema límbico por las siguientes razones: 1) la agresividad que muestran individuos con lesiones anteroinferiores del lóbulo temporal (24); 2) anormalidades estructurales y funcionales del hipocampo, la amígdala, el núcleo estriado ventral y el giro cíngulo, demostradas en individuos con psicopatía por técnicas de neuroimágenes funcionales (25-28); 3) presencia en los individuos con psicopatía de alteraciones en funciones relacionadas con las conexiones del sistema límbico con la corteza orbitofrontal, manifestadas como: disminución en la respuesta electrodérmica al estrés, insensibilidad al castigo y dificultades para reconocer las expresiones faciales y los tonos vocales de miedo y de tristeza (26,(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34). ...
La psicopatía es un constructo psiquiátrico caracterizado por un patrón permanente de déficit afectivo y una falta de respeto por los derechos de los demás y por las normas sociales. El término equivale al “trastorno de personalidad antisocial” DSM-IV-TR y al “Trastorno disocial de personalidad” de la Clasificación Internacional de Enfermedades (CIE-10). Los individuos afectados comienzan a presentar características psicopáticas desde la niñez, son propensos a involucrarse en conductas criminales pero no a resocializarse con los programas penitenciarios, y reinciden con más rapidez, crueldad y violencia que los criminales no psicópatas. La etiopatogenia parece basarse en la interacción compleja de factores biológicos y psicosociales. El objetivo del presente artículo es presentar una revisión actualizada de los aspectos neurobiológicos de la psicopatía entre los cuales se encuentran los obstétricos, neuroanatómicos, neuroquímicos y genéticos.
... La ToM se refiere a la capacidad que tiene una persona para inferir el estado mental de los demás, en sus conocimientos, necesidades, intenciones y creencias (Premack & Woodruff, 1978). A partir de ello, Richell et al. (2003) sugieren que los psicópatas presentan deficiencias en dichas capacidades de la ToM, lo cual también se asocia a la presencia de rasgos de CE. Por ejemplo, Nentjes et al. (2015) reportaron que la ToM moderaba la asociación entre la DS y la psicopatía (específicamente con el factor 2 de la PCL-R, que incluye las facetas estilo de vida y antisocial); además, indicaron que solo aquellos delincuentes con puntuaciones elevadas en ToM obtuvieron bajos niveles de DS. ...
El propósito principal de este estudio fue analizar la relación entre deseabilidad social (DS), el trastorno de conducta (TC) y el callo emocional (CE). En él participaron 150 adolescentes, entre los 13 y los 17 años (47% mujeres y 53% hombres), y se formaron dos grupos (con y sin probable TC). Se aplicó la escala de necesidad de aprobación social (ENAS), el cuestionario de detección del trastorno de conducta (CDTC), y el inventario de rasgos de insensibilidad emocional (IRIE). Se observó que el nivel de DS total resultó significativamente más bajo en el grupo con probable TC; también, una relación negativa baja entre la puntuación total del ENAS y las puntuaciones del CDTC, y negativas y moderadas con el IRIE. En conclusión se observó una relación negativa, aunque baja, entre la DS y el TC, y entre moderada y negativa con el CE. Las relaciones entre variables se modificaron en función de la edad y el género.
... For example, aggressive offenders that, by definition, showed severe antisocial behavior, do not exhibit altered mentalizing abilities 25 . Likewise, persons scoring high on the traits narcissism or psychopathy-that are both characterized by reduced prosocial behavior-appear to display normal 26,27 or even slightly increased mentalizing performance 28 . Beyond that, it has also been shown and argued that the association between mentalizing and prosocial behavior underlies contextual variation (for reviews, see 29,30 ). ...
In a world with rapidly increasing population that competes for the earth’s limited resources, cooperation is crucial. While research showed that empathizing with another individual in need enhances prosociality, it remains unclear whether correctly inferring the other’s inner, mental states on a more cognitive level (i.e., mentalizing) elicits helping behavior as well. We applied a video-based laboratory task probing empathy and a performance measure of mentalizing in adult volunteers (N = 94) and assessed to which extent they were willing to help the narrators in the videos. We replicate findings that an empathy induction leads to more prosocial decisions. Crucially, we also found that correct mentalizing increases the willingness to help. This evidence helps clarify an inconsistent picture of the relation between mentalizing and prosociality.
... Metacognitive abilities are a subset of executive functions sometimes described as essential for social interactions and resolving dilemmas in daily life. Although people with psychopathy have been generally characterized by an unimpaired ability to understand the cognitive states of others (also referred to as theory of mind, ToM; Blair et al., 1996;Dolan & Fullam, 2004;Fertuck et al., 2009;Lyons et al., 2013;Richell et al., 2003;Wai & Tiliopoulos, 2012) they do show impairments in understanding the affective states of others (cognitive empathy; e.g., Brook & Kosson, 2013;Decety et al., 2013;Fan, Duncan et al., 2011) and a lack of affective responsiveness to the affective states of others (affective empathy; Blair, 2005;Meffert et al., 2013). In addition, efficacious metacognition has been shown to inhibit violence among individuals high in psychopathy (Blair, 1995). ...
Psychopathy and psychosis are often misunderstood and incorrectly conflated. We examine the relationship between psychopathy and various psychotic and psychotic-spectrum disorders. The paucity of literature exploring the intersection of psychopathic traits and psychosis is surprising given that each domain is the subject of a rich clinical research literature. We first examine the relationship between psychopathy and psychotic-spectrum disorders, with emphases on schizophrenia, metacognition, violence, and patients within secure forensic settings. Most current literature focuses specifically on the relationship between psychopathy and schizophrenia. We also explore the relationship between psychopathy and personality disorders related to psychosis including Cluster A personality disorders. Lastly, we provide recommendations for future research. Specifically, more etiological factors should be considered and the possible link between psychopathy and a broader range of psychotic disorders should be examined. The relationship between psychopathy and schizotypal personality appears to be a particularly informative avenue for future research.KeywordsMetacognitionPsychopathyPsychosisSchizophreniaSchizotypalViolence
... Mixed findings have made it hard to interpret the relationship between RMET and psychopathy. Some studies have found no difference at all in RMET performance between psychopathic and non-psychopathic individuals [14,15]. Other researchers have found significant relationships [11]. ...
(1) Background: there is an ongoing debate about whether psychopathic traits increase or decrease cognitive empathy/Theory of Mind. (2) Methods: using a representative sample of 204 Spanish convicted inmates incarcerated at the Pereiro de Aguiar Penitentiary in Ourense, Spain, we investigated the relationship between two tools for the assessment of psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP), and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), a well-known measure of cognitive empathy. (3) Results: The results showed no clear connection between the scores on the psychopathy assessment tools and RMET performance. This lack of association was stronger when the age variable was included in the multivariate analysis. (4) Conclusions: the results of this study failed to detect any clear link between psychopathy and cognitive empathy performance. Accordingly, our results indicate that psychopathy neither improves nor worsens cognitive empathy.
... For example, those with psychopathic traits often show deficits in emotional but not cognitive empathy (e.g., Jones, Happe, Gilbert, Burnett, & Viding, 2010;Richell et al., 2003). In contrast, those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder show deficits in cognitive but not emotional empathy (Mazza et al., 2014); however, these deficits can vary developmentally (Dadds et al., 2009). ...
Historically, empathy has been thought to motivate prosocial behaviour and inhibit aggressive behaviour. Contrary to current assumptions and theoretical support, a recent meta-analysis revealed a small effect of empathy on aggression among adults (Vachon, Lynam, & Johnson, 2013). The current study sought to determine whether broadening the focus from empathy to include other socially relevant affective characteristics (such as in CU traits) was advantageous in predicting aggressive behaviour. As little is known about the strength of this association among youth, the current study meta-analytically examined 192 unique effect sizes drawn from published and unpublished studies reporting on samples of children and adolescents. Analyses were conducted across general, cognitive, and emotional empathy, as well as callous-unemotional traits, and general, direct, indirect, proactive, and reactive aggression. Significant variability was noted across effect sizes. Consistent with a recent meta-analysis involving adults (Vachon et al., 2013), small to moderate associations were identified between aggression and traditional measures of empathy (i.e., general, emotional, cognitive); these effects ranged from r = −0.06 to −0.26. Among broader measures of emotional style (i.e., callous-unemotional traits), moderate to large effects were found; ranging from r = 0.30 to 0.37. Results suggested that broader affective measures may be more strongly associated with aggression than empathy alone. The results raise questions about the nature of empathy assessment and indicate the utility of targeting multiple emotion-related factors during treatment to effectively reduce aggressive behaviour. In particular, the results underscore of the importance of considering the limited prosocial emotions specifier (perhaps trans-diagnostically given the varied nature of the sample) when considering implications for prognosis and treatment targets.
... Test RME bol použitý pri výskume rozdielov skóre pacientov s rôznymi diagnózami oproti kontrolnej skupine -napr. Aspergerov syndróm (Baron-Cohen a kol., 2001a) alebo poruchy osobnosti (Richell a kol., 2003). Slúžil aj ako miera "kognitívnej empatie" pri výskume vzťahu fetálnehotestosterónu a empatických schopností (Chapman a kol., 2006). ...
Abstract
The "Reading Minds from Eyes" (RME) test is considered to be an advanced scale to measure performance in theory of mind, i.e., the ability to attribute mental states to others. According to previous research, this test differentiates between controls and patients with presumed low mentalising abilities (e.g. people with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome).
However, the psychometric properties of this test are hardly ever published.
In this study, we administered the Slovak child version of the RMIE to primary school students (N = 344, mean age 11.00; SD = 0.83).
Although the pattern of their responses did not differ from earlier results, our analysis revealed serious psychometric problems: Cronbach's α = 0.606
(N items = 28), item-test correlations ranging from 0.001 to 0.328 with a mean of 0.180.
Exploratory factor analysis revealed no discernible internal structure to the test and is almost impossible to use the test items to construct a scale that would
consistent with the Rasch model.
... This becomes particularly evident if we consider the negative association between perspective taking and psychopathy found in this meta-analysis. Perspective taking is considered a form of cognitive empathy, but so is cognitive ToM which, however, does not appear to be impaired in individuals with psychopathy (Blair et al., 1996;Richell et al., 2003). Similarly, future studies should report results for all psychopathy factors. ...
Psychopathy is characterized by extensive emotional impairments. However, the current empirical literature on empathy and alexithymia in psychopathy provides heterogeneous results.
Random-effects models were performed on studies examining the association between psychopathy and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index as well as the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. In total, 72 articles providing 716 effect sizes and representing 15,016 participants were included in the analyses. Furthermore, differences among psychopathy factors and the role of potential moderators were assessed.
We found negative relationships between psychopathy and empathy (r = −0.31), empathic concern (r = −0.29), perspective taking (r = −0.22), and personal distress (r = −0.14). In addition, our results yielded positive relationships between psychopathy and alexithymia (r = 0.21), difficulty describing feelings (r = 0.20), difficulty identifying feelings (r = 0.16), and externally-oriented thinking (r = 0.15). The results varied by psychopathy factors, and some were moderated by gender.
These findings suggest that psychopathy is associated with deficits in various empathic processes as well as with an impaired perception of one's own emotions. Moreover, the results highlight the necessity to investigate these deficits not only across overall constructs, but also across their factors to further improve the understanding of aberrant emotionality in psychopathy.
... Accordingly, the work with fine-grained dissection of the mentalising components will advance our understanding of mentalising during live social interaction (Wu et al., 2020b). Moreover, previous research on the inter-individual variability in mentalising ability has typically focused on neurological and psychiatric disorders (Stuss et al., 2001;Kerr et al., 2003;Richell et al., 2003;Snowden et al., 2003). While confirming the importance of mentalising in social life, substantial mentalising differences also exist in healthy adults. ...
Mentalising ability, indexed as the ability to understand others' beliefs, feelings, intentions, thoughts, and traits, is a pivotal and fundamental component of human social cognition. However , considering the multifaceted nature of mentalising ability, little research has focused on characterising individual differences in different mentalising components. And even less research has been devoted to investigating how the variance in the structural and functional patterns of the amygdala and hippocampus, two vital subcortical regions of the 'social brain', are related to inter-individual variability in mentalising ability. Here, as a first step toward filling these gaps, we exploited inter-subject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA) to assess relationships between amygdala and hippocampal morphometry (surface-based mul-tivariate morphometry statistics, MMS), connectivity (resting-state functional connectivity, rs-FC) and mentalising ability (interactive mentalisation questionnaire (IMQ) scores) across the participants (N = 24). In IS-RSA, we proposed a novel pipeline, i.e., computing patching and pooling operations-based surface distance (CPP-SD), to obtain a decent representation for high-dimensional MMS data. On this basis, We found significant correlations (i.e., second-order isomorphisms) between these three distinct modalities, indicating that a trinity existed in idiosyncratic patterns of brain morphometry, connectivity and mentalising ability. Notably, a region-related mentalising specificity emerged from these associations: self-self and self-other mentalisation are more related to the hippocampus, while other-self mentalisation shows a closer link with the amygdala. Furthermore, by utilising the dyadic regression analysis, we observed significant interactions such that subject pairs with similar morphometry had even greater mentalising similarity if they were also similar in rs-FC. Altogether, we demonstrated the feasibility and illustrated the promise in using IS-RSA to study individual differences, deepening our understanding of how individual brains give rise to their mentalising abilities.
... Across three studies, we observed that IMQ_SO was positively correlated with psychopathy, while IMQ_OS and IMQ_SS were both negatively correlated with psychopathy. These results are not entirely consistent with some previous studies that failed to find a relationship between psychopathy and theory of mind (Richell et al., 2003;Del Gaizo and Falkenbach, 2008), or literature demonstrating a negative association between psychopathy and mentalization (Choi-Kain and Gunderson, 2008;Bateman et al., 2013). However, it is important to note that our study focused on typical individuals with and trait-psychopathy, rather than clinically determined psychopaths. ...
Studies have shown that during social interaction a shared system underlies inferring one’s own mental state, and the mental states of others – processes often referred to as mentalization. However, no validated assessment has been developed to measure second order mentalization (one’s beliefs about how transparent one’s thoughts are to others), or whether this capacity plays a significant role in social interaction. The current work presents a interactive mentalization theory, which divides these directional and second order aspects of mentalization, and investigates whether these constructs are measurable, stable, and meaningful in social interactions. We developed a 20-item, self-report interactive mentalization questionnaire (IMQ) in order to assess the different sub-components of mentalization: self–self, self–other, and other–self mentalization (Study 1). We then tested this scale on a large, online sample, and report convergent and discriminant validity in the form of correlations with other measures (Study 2), as well as correlations with social deception behaviors in real online interaction with Mturk studies (Study 3 and Study 4). These results validate the IMQ, and support the idea that these three factors can predict mentalization in social interaction.
... 42 It may be the case that ToM is not a pivotal piece in the emergence of delinquent behavior, but indeed a trigger during the development. Literature has not data supporting clear differences between people with a history of legally relevant aggressive behavior and psychopathic traits regarding ToM, [43][44][45] however, there is supporting evidence for holding that impairments in this regard reduce during the development. 46 Interestingly, though, was the study conducted by Jusyte and Schönenberg (2009), which revealed a specific deficit in the categorization of ambiguous negative facial expressions in a group of violent offenders, while no differences were observed concerning the perceptual sensitivity on neutral/emotional stimuli. ...
Introduction:
Delinquent behaviors are risky behaviors that increase during puberty and reach the highest peak in late adolescence. It has been proposed that poor decision-making and theory of mind (ToM) are key cognitive processes implicated with delinquency during adolescence, affecting the valuation of risks and lack of social norms appreciation, respectively. Nevertheless, it is not clear yet whether adolescent offenders who are at provisional deprivation of liberty due to conflict with the law (ACL) might, in fact, present a specific profile in these cognitive processes.
Objective:
To assess deliberative decision-making and ToM among adolescents with and without conflict with the law.
Method:
:The sample comprised 62 participants: ACL (n=29) and a control group (CG; n=33). ToM was assessed with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test and decision-making was assessed with the Columbia Card Task. Additionally, substance use, callous-unemotional traits, childhood maltreatment and IQ, were assessed.
Results:
ACL had more ToM errors for negative mental states in comparison to CG, but not for error rates concerning neutral and positive mental states. With regards to decision-making, our results suggest that ACL group did not vary their behavior based on the available information and that the risk information has an opposite effect in the number of cards (risk-taking behavior) when compared to CG.
Conclusion:
These findings have important implications for the development of interventions for these adolescents, suggesting that they tend to learn little from negative outcomes while have reduced capacity to process negative emotions.
... Several studies have observed an association between empathy and the aetiology and maintenance of criminal offenses (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2004). Results ranged from an impaired ability to recognise mental states of others (Mariano et al., 2017;Marsh & Blair, 2008;Sandvik et al., 2014;Seidl et al., 2020) or a superior recognition of angry faces (Kosson et al., 2002), to a reduced emotional responsiveness in individuals with a history of criminal behaviour (Richell et al., 2003). ...
Deficits in cognitive empathy (CE) have been associated with a child sexual offense (CSO) history in paedophilia. However, these results have been obtained in cross-sectional comparison. There are no longitudinal studies yet. We performed a longitudinal study with a 3-year interval and investigated CE and emotional empathy (EE) using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) in paedophilic men with a CSO history (P + CSO), paedophilic men without a CSO history (P-CSO), and non-offending teleiophilic male controls (TC). Results were stable and confirmed cross-sectional data with evidence for higher CE as measured by the MET in P-CSO compared to P + CSO. Evidence for more distress in social situations as measured by the IRI was found in P-CSO compared to TC, only. Our results highlight the importance of addressing multiple aspects of empathy in paedophilia and CSO and support the inclusion of CE training in the prevention of CSO.
... Prior research found that theory of mind was not impaired in individuals exhibiting high levels of psychopathic traits (Richell et al., 2003). This suggests that the capacity to extrapolate another individual's goals and intentions is intact in high psychopathic individuals. ...
The study of emotional intelligence (EI) and its relationship with the dark triad has emerged as a popular research area. However, the complex nature of the dark triad and EI, including multiple measures for assessment, has led to inconsistent findings. A systematic review was conducted to focus on the multifaceted nature of the dark triad traits. Included studies must have been conducted with adult samples using standardized EI and dark triad measures. Forty-eight studies were identified; all bar one reported overall negative associations between the dark triad and EI. These associations were more complicated than expected. Further examination found these relationships significantly differed when examined at the facet level. Our results highlight that future research requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Theory of mind (ToM) has been addressed in relation to functional alterations of certain brain regions and their connections. The objective is to evaluate ToM in imprisoned criminal offenders and to analyze their relationship with the functions linked to the prefrontal cortex according to their expression in neuropsychological tests. The sample was composed of 52 subjects. 27 committed instrumental homicides and 25 crimes of sale and/or possession of narcotics. A control group was taken, 19 healthy subjects at liberty. The Faux-Pas (FP) and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes tests were used. A neuropsychological battery of executive functions and functions related to the frontal lobes and Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) was also applied. The criminal groups have comparable performances in all measures. The control group (in freedom) showed higher performance, with statistical significance, in the Faux-Pas test. Moderate negative correlations were found between the FP and the PCL-R. A distinction between affective and cognitive ToM could be affirmed, with people deprived of liberty presenting deficient functioning in the cognitive ToM test. This difference in performance could be linked to the disruptive event with the social norm and not so much with the violent homicide act itself.
In this chapter, the genesis of empathy as a word is briefly traced. In particular, it is the Theodor Lipps' work on the subject and his insistence on the imitative mechanism underlying the empathic phenomenon which is recalled. This analysis is preliminary to the examination of empathy as a concept, which will be offered in Chap. 2 .
Gesundheit ist ein objektiver Zustand. Dieser objektive Zustand kann anhand aller messbaren Funktionen, die zu einer medizinischen Diagnose führen, festgestellt werden. Gesundheit ist auch ein subjektiver Zustand. Die subjektive Gesundheit bezeichnet die Überzeugungen einer Person über Gesundheit und Krankheit und über ihr körperliches und seelisches Wohlbefinden. Studien zeigen, dass die subjektive Einschätzung des eigenen Gesundheitszustands künftige Erkrankungen und Sterblichkeit besser vorhersagt als die objektive, medizinisch messbare Einschätzung (Motel-Klingebiel et al., 2010). Deshalb ist es wichtig, insbesondere die subjektive Einschätzung der Person zu erfragen.
It is unclear at present whether psychopathic tendencies are associated with lower or higher levels of emotional awareness (EA). Given that psychopathy includes a proficiency for manipulating others, one might expect an elevated ability to identify and use information about others’ emotions. On the other hand, empathic deficits in psychopathy could arise from reduced emotional awareness. Further, heterogeneity in psychopathy may also play a role, wherein ‘secondary’ psychopathy is associated with early adversity and high negative affect, while ‘primary’ psychopathy is not. In this paper, we tested the relationship between EA and psychopathic tendencies in 177 undergraduate students (40 males) who completed the levels of emotional awareness scale (LEAS), the triarchic psychopathy measure (TPM), the affective (empathy-related) subscales of the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI), and two measures of early adversity: the childhood experiences of care and abuse questionnaire (CECA) and the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ). We found that lower LEAS scores were associated with higher TPM and lower IRI empathy scores, but these relationships were primarily present in those with early adversity and high negative affect. This suggests that lower EA may be selectively associated with higher levels of secondary psychopathy, while those with higher levels of primary psychopathy remain capable of higher EA.
Purpose
Empathy has been widely theorized as an important ability in professions such as policing, in which to perform well individuals require multiple and interacting abilities, not least when resolving conflict situations. Even so, there are few studies investigating how subconstructs of empathy relate to other constructs such as general cognitive ability. The purpose of this paper is to establish, after evaluating psychometric properties, relationships among measures of empathy and cognitive ability in a sample of Swedish police students (n = 157).
Design/methodology/approach
Multiple latent variable models of how the different measures work to predict tasks that can be seen as proxies for the ability to understand another person’s situation and intentions are evaluated to determine the most robust relationship(s) within the data.
Findings
We find support for the psychometric properties reported in previous studies with the used instruments. We also find support for perspective-taking, a cognitive empathy subconstruct predicting the ability to recognize emotions, and also the affective part of empathy, predicting general cognitive ability. These findings are discussed at length in the paper.
Originality/value
This research adds more knowledge to the issue of how general cognitive ability relates to cognitive empathy and other subconstructs of empathy or Theory of Mind.
Aggressive behaviors could be considered as a dynamic of communication, in which aggression is a language to be understood, to be deciphered by two protagonists : the aggressor coping with a stressful and threatening situation and the aggressed individual coping with an aggressive acting out. The following questions are addressed: (a) What does aggression mean to the aggressor, what does it mean to the aggressed individual? (b) What does the aggressor want or try to express, and why does he or she use this mode of expression and action over another? (c) How does the aggressed individual react, and what is the impact of his or her response on the aggressor? This article reviews studies on the definition of aggression, its measurement, its developmental role and its associated risk factors in children and adolescents. First, aggression in children and adolescents with typical and atypical development is examined based on a developmental psychology approach, clinical case studies in child and adolescent psychiatry, and an empirical study on aggression in autism. Then, in light of these studies, the problem of violence among younger and younger children and adolescents, is discussed. Finally, taking together these studies and discussion, a model is proposed that accounts for factors involved in aggressive behaviors and for different possible levels of intervention. Physical and/or psychic threats generate stress and may therefore lead to offensive or defensive aggression. Stress has to be considered in its physiological dimension (biological stress responses) and psychological dimension (perceived stress). This model reveals a vicious circle: when the main response to aggression is repression, it may reinforce physical/psychic threats and stress perceived by the aggressor, and in turn aggressive behaviors. Intervention can occur at three levels: the stressful situation, the aggressor (perception of the stressful situation and his or her response), and the aggressed individual (perception of the aggression and his or her response). This model, like all models, is limited but it offers a discussion and perspectives to understand the different links that form the “chain of aggressive behavior” and the relationships between exposure to violence and expression of violence. The article concludes on the interest of a muldisciplinary approach to aggression integrating physiological, psychological and sociological dimensions.
Anthropomorphism is a widely used communication strategy – especially popular to promote food products. The current research examines the novel idea that food anthropomorphism negatively affects consumption – reducing consumption amount and deteriorating consumption experience. I argue and show that this negative effect occurs because anthropomorphizing grants the food product the perceived capacity to feel pain, which negatively affects consumption because it increases perceived immorality of consumption. In support of this process, I demonstrate that this negative effect manifests only among warm‐hearted (vs. cold‐hearted) consumers and in consumption (vs. purchase) decisions. Doing so not only extends anthropomorphism theory by providing a more nuanced understanding of how consumers respond to food anthropomorphism, but also allows to formulate managerial guidelines for the implementation of this strategy.
Objective:
This article delineates best practices in the application of the experimental therapeutics framework for evaluating interventions within the context of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), offering a methodological primer and guiding framework for this approach. We illustrate these practices using an ongoing clinical trial conducted within the framework of a National Institute of Mental Health exploratory phased-innovation award for the development of psychosocial therapeutic interventions for mental disorders (R61/R33), describing the implementation of a novel "Facial Affect Sensitivity Training" (FAST) intervention for children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits. CU traits (e.g., lack of guilt or remorse, low empathy, shallow affect) are an established risk factor for persistent and severe youth misconduct, which reflect impairment in identified neurocognitive mechanisms that interfere with child socialization, and predict poor treatment outcomes, even with well-established treatments for disruptive behavior.
Method:
We outline the stages, goals, and best practices for an experimental therapeutics framework. In the FAST trial, we assert that impaired sensitivity for emotional distress cues (fear and/or sadness) is mechanistically linked to CU traits in children, and that by targeting sensitivity to facial affect directly via a computerized automated feedback and incentive system, we can exert downstream effects on CU traits.
Results:
In the context of an open pilot trial, we found preliminary support for feasibility and mechanism engagement using FAST.
Conclusions:
We summarize pilot study limitations and how they are being addressed in the R61/R33 RCTs, as well as challenges and future directions for psychosocial experimental therapeutics.
Understanding how psychopathy compares with brain disease can help clarify its underlying mechanisms. This literature review is a broad overview of the neurobiology of psychopathic traits in comparison to behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a disorder uniquely associated with criminal behavior. In addition to violation of social norms, both psychopathy and bvFTD result in impaired socioemotional perception and empathy, impulsivity, and altered moral judgment. Despite wide areas of decreased function in psychopathy, structural changes are primarily evident in amygdala and, to a lesser extent, anterior insula, whereas in bvFTD neuropathology involves a wider paralimbic region. In psychopathy, relatively intact medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices facilitate theory of mind and psychopathic traits such as deceitfulness and manipulation, bold fearlessness, and risk-taking behavior. In conclusion, many frontotemporal areas are hypoactive in psychopathy and bvFTD, but differences in dysfunctional connectivity in psychopathy vs. direct involvement in bvFTD potentially explain similarities and differences between these two conditions.
The deficit of theory of mind (ToM) is considered by a number of authors as one of the risk factors for involvement in criminal activity for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (for example because of difficulties in understanding other people’s intentions). The relationship between the deficit of ToM and moral judgments is discussed. The methods of test diagnostics (“Moral dilemmas”, A-ToM) and the method of content analysis of answers to open questions on moral dilemmas were used. It is shown that individuals with ASD are less likely to give utilitarian answers to impersonal dilemmas, but regardless of the intact of ToM, there is a tendency to reduce the degree of utilitarianism from impersonal to personal dilemmas. It is also shown that individuals with ASD do not rely on the intentions of actors when reasoning about moral dilemmas, but not only individuals with ASD rely on conse-quences in such reasoning.
The current meta-analysis includes 477 records (N = 142,692) and comprehensively explores the complex interplay between psychopathy, antisocial behavior, and empathy. First, empathy domains (cognitive and affective) were used to dissociate antisocial behavior from psychopathy. Cognitive empathy was more impaired in antisocial groups (gcognitive = −0.43; gaffective = −0.11), while samples scoring higher in psychopathy displayed larger deficits in affective empathy (gaffective = −0.40; gcognitive = −0.22). Secondly, the specific associations between empathy domains and psychopathy dimensions were evaluated. Psychopathy traits closely related to antisocial behavior were mildly associated with both empathy domains (r = −0.03 to −0.21). Callous-affective traits were largely correlated with affective empathy (r = −0.34 to −0.46) and moderately correlated to cognitive empathy (r = −0.26 to −0.27). Diverging results were found for the interpersonal dimension, as boldness-adaptive manifestations were unrelated to cognitive empathy (r = 0.03), while non-adaptive interpersonal traits were negatively associated with both empathy domains (rcognitive = −0.16; raffective = −0.25). Overall, these findings suggest that: (1) psychopathy and antisocial behavior display distinct empathic profiles; (2) psychopathy dimensions are differentially associated with cognitive and affective empathy; (3) the interaction between interpersonal traits and empathy domains is different across the conceptual models of psychopathy.
Jedna z najczęściej pojawiających się w literaturze definicji inteligencji opisuje ją jako zdolność, która ułatwia człowiekowi przystosowanie do środowiska. Badania psychologiczne prowadzone już od drugiej połowy XIX w. (m.in. przez Francisa Galtona) zdają się potwierdzać adaptacyjny charakter inteligencji. Od samego początku badacze łączyli sprawność intelektualną z funkcjonowaniem szkolnym. W kontekście badania uczniów szkoły średniej zrodziła się koncepcja czynnika inteligencji ogólnej zaproponowana przez Charlesa Spearmana. Nowo powstałe testy inteligencji u progu XX w., początkowo stworzone dla celów edukacyjnych przez Alfreda Bineta, szybko wzbudziły zainteresowanie pracodawców, ponieważ stanowiły efektywne narzędzie wyboru najlepszych kandydatów do pracy. Proces rozpowszechniania się testów inteligencji przyspieszyła I wojna światowa i potrzeba szybkiej selekcji kandydatów do służby wojskowej na różnych stanowiskach. Szkoła i praca, niewątpliwie ważne obszary aktywności człowieka, nie wyczerpują jednak dziedzin, w których inteligencja okazała się ważna. Późniejsze badania, prowadzone m.in. przez zespół szkockiego badacza Iana Deary’ego, pokazały znaczenie inteligencji dla zdrowia i długości życia. Inteligencja jest ogólną zdolnością, która przesądza o sprawności funkcjonowania poznawczego człowieka. Praktycznie każda aktywność ludzka angażuje w jakimś stopniu procesy poznawcze. Nie dziwi zatem fakt, że inteligencja ma znaczenie w niemal każdej sferze życia, od samoregulacji, osobowości, przekonań o świecie, kontroli niepożądanych zachowań i emocji, po aktywność fizyczną, preferencje dobowe i funkcjonowanie w związkach. W niniejszym zbiorze przyglądamy się niektórym z tych obszarów, wskazując na różnorodność wątków związanych z inteligencją. (...)
W pierwszej części książki znalazły się rozdziały odwołujące się bezpośrednio do adaptacyjnego charakteru inteligencji oraz związanymi z nią funkcjami poznawczymi. Pierwszy rozdział autorstwa Marcina Zajenkowskiego stanowi wprowadzenie do całego zbioru i przedstawia rys historyczny dociekań nad inteligencją, jej definicję oraz przegląd badań nad znaczeniem inteligencji dla osiągnięć szkolnych, funkcjonowania w pracy oraz zdrowia i długości życia. Następne trzy rozdziały opisują rolę zdolności poznawczych dla adaptacyjnego zachowania w zakresie samoregulacji (Jan Jędrzejczyk), agresywnego zachowania (Marta Bodecka) oraz uzależnień (Iwona Nowakowska, Karolina Lewandowska, Karol Lewczuk).
Druga część zbioru obejmuje teksty, w których przedyskutowano związki inteligencji i zdolności poznawczych z przekonaniami i emocjami. Marcin Zajenkowski i Oliwia Maciantowicz wskazują na wagę przekonań o własnej inteligencji dla różnych obszarów życia. Kinga Szymaniak przedstawia badania nad związkami gniew–poznanie, wskazując na najnowsze teorie z zakresu psychologii emocji. Paweł Łowicki omawia powiązania inteligencji i zdolności emocjonalno-społecznych z przekonaniami religijnymi. Maria Ledzińska prezentuje obszerny przegląd badań nad metapoznaniem, a więc wiedzą na temat własnych procesów poznawczych, jej związkami z inteligencją i codziennym funkcjonowaniem.
W trzeciej części zbioru przedstawiono rozdziały opisujące rolę inteligencji w specyficznych obszarach życia. Wojciech Waleriańczyk i Maciej Stolarski zebrali informacje na temat roli inteligencji w sporcie. Konrad Jankowski przedstawia badania nad związkami zdolności poznawczych z chronotypem, cechą opisującą preferencje pory dnia dla aktywności człowieka. W ostatnim rozdziale Maria Leniarska i Marcin Zajenkowski dokonują przeglądu badań nad inteligencją ogólną oraz inteligencją emocjonalną i funkcjonowaniem osób w bliskich związkach.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the human brain was used to compare changes in amygdala activity associated with viewing facial expressions of fear and anger. Pictures of human faces bearing expressions of fear or anger, as well as faces with neutral expressions, were presented to 8 healthy participants. The blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI signal within the dorsal amygdala was significantly greater to Fear versus Anger, in a direct contrast. Significant BOLD signal changes in the ventral amygdala were observed in contrasts of Fear versus Neutral expressions and, in a more spatially circumscribed region, to Anger versus Neutral expressions. Thus, activity in the amygdala is greater to fearful facial expressions when contrasted with either neutral or angry faces. Furthermore, directly contrasting fear with angry faces highlighted involvement of the dorsal amygdaloid region.
This paper considers neurocognitive models of aggression and relates them to explanations of the antisocial personality disorders. Two forms of aggression are distinguished: reactive aggression elicited in response to frustration/threat and goal directed, instrumental aggression. It is argued that different forms of neurocognitive model are necessary to explain the emergence of these different forms of aggression. Impairments in executive emotional systems (the somatic marker system or the social response reversal system) are related to reactive aggression shown by patients with “acquired sociopathy” due to orbitofrontal cortex lesions. Impairment in the capacity to form associations between emotional unconditioned stimuli, particularly distress cues, and conditioned stimuli (the violence inhibition mechanism model) is related to the instrumental aggression shown by persons with developmental psychopathy.
Research on the relation between social information processing and social adjustment in childhood is reviewed and interpreted within the framework of a reformulated model of human performance and social exchange. This reformulation proves to assimilate almost all previous studies and is a useful heuristic device for organizing the field. The review suggests that overwhelming evidence supports the empirical relation between characteristic processing styles and children's social adjustment, with some aspects of processing (e.g., hostile attributional biases, intention cue detection accuracy, response access patterns, and evaluation of response outcomes) likely to be causal of behaviors that lead to social status and other aspects (e.g., perceived self-competence) likely to be responsive to peer status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study investigated the performance of boys with psychopathic tendencies and comparison boys, aged 9 to 17 years, on two tasks believed to be sensitive to amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex functioning. Fifty-one boys were divided into two groups according to the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD, P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, in press) and presented with two tasks. The tasks were the gambling task (A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) and the Intradimensional/Extradimensional (ID/ED) shift task (R. Dias, T. W. Robbins, & A. C. Roberts, 1996). The boys with psychopathic tendencies showed impaired performance on the gambling task. However, there were no group differences on the ID/ED task either for response reversal or extradimensional set shifting. The implications of these results for models of psychopathy are discussed.
The processing of emotional expressions is fundamental for normal socialisation and interaction. Reduced responsiveness to the expressions of sadness and fear has been implicated in the development of psychopathy (R. J. R. Blair, 1995). The current study investigates the sensitivity of children with psychopathic tendencies to facial expressions. Children with psychopathic tendencies and a comparison group, as defined by the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD; P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, in press), were presented with a cinematic display of a standardised set of facial expressions that depicted sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise. Participants observed as these facial expressions slowly evolved through 20 successive frames of increasing intensity. The children with psychopathic tendencies presented with selective impairments; they needed significantly more stages before they could successfully recognise the sad expressions and even when the fearful expressions were at full intensity were significantly more likely to mistake them for another expression. These results are interpreted with reference to an amygdala and empathy impairment explanation of psychopathy.
We tested the hypothesis that the response mobilization that normally accompanies imagery of emotional situations is deficient in psychopaths. Cardiac, electrodermal, and facial muscle responses of 54 prisoners, assigned to low- and high-psychopathy groups using R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised, were recorded while subjects imagined fearful and neutral scenes in a cued sentence-processing task. Groups did not differ on self-ratings of fearfulness, imagery ability, or imagery experience. Low-psychopathy subjects showed larger physiological reactions during fearful imagery than high-psychopathy subjects. Extreme scores on the antisocial behavior factor of psychopathy predicted imagery response deficits. Results are consistent with the idea that semantic and emotional processes are dissociated in psychopaths.
A sample of 6- to 13-year-old clinic-referred (n = 136) and volunteer (n = 30) participants was investigated for a potential interaction between the quality of parenting that a child receives and callous-unemotional traits in the child for predicting conduct problems. Ineffective parenting was associated with conduct problems only in children without significant levels of callous (e.g. lack of empathy, manipulativeness) and unemotional (e.g., lack of guilt, emotional constrictedness) traits. In contrast, children high on these traits exhibited a significant number of conduct problems, regardless of the quality of parenting they experienced. Results are interpreted in the context of a model that proposes that callous-unemotional traits designate a group of children with conduct problems who have distinct causal factors involved in the development of their problematic behavior.
Neuropsychological studies report more impaired responses to facial expressions of fear than disgust in people with amygdala lesions, and vice versa in people with Huntington's disease. Experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have confirmed the role of the amygdala in the response to fearful faces and have implicated the anterior insula in the response to facial expressions of disgust. We used fMRI to extend these studies to the perception of fear and disgust from both facial and vocal expressions. Consistent with neuropsychological findings, both types of fearful stimuli activated the amygdala. Facial expressions of disgust activated the anterior insula and the caudate-putamen; vocal expressions of disgust did not significantly activate either of these regions. All four types of stimuli activated the superior temporal gyrus. Our findings therefore (i) support the differential localization of the neural substrates of fear and disgust; (ii) confirm the involvement of the amygdala in the emotion of fear, whether evoked by facial or vocal expressions; (iii) confirm the involvement of the anterior insula and the striatum in reactions to facial expressions of disgust; and (iv) suggest a possible general role for the perception of emotional expressions for the superior temporal gyrus.
Previous neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have investigated the neural substrates which mediate responses to fearful, disgusted and happy expressions. No previous studies have investigated the neural substrates which mediate responses to sad and angry expressions. Using functional neuroimaging, we tested two hypotheses. First, we tested whether the amygdala has a neural response to sad and/or angry facial expressions. Secondly, we tested whether the orbitofrontal cortex has a specific neural response to angry facial expressions. Volunteer subjects were scanned, using PET, while they performed a sex discrimination task involving static grey-scale images of faces expressing varying degrees of sadness and anger. We found that increasing intensity of sad facial expression was associated with enhanced activity in the left amygdala and right temporal pole. In addition, we found that increasing intensity of angry facial expression was associated with enhanced activity in the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex. We found no support for the suggestion that angry expressions generate a signal in the amygdala. The results provide evidence for dissociable, but interlocking, systems for the processing of distinct categories of negative facial expression.
Psychopathy is a complex personality disorder of unknown etiology. Central to the disorder are anomalies or difficulties in affective processing.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to elucidate the neurobiological correlates of these anomalies in criminal psychopaths during performance of an affective memory task.
Compared with criminal nonpsychopaths and noncriminal control participants, criminal psychopaths showed significantly less affect-related activity in the amygdala/hippocampal formation, parahippocampal gyrus, ventral striatum, and in the anterior and posterior cingulate gyri. Psychopathic criminals also showed evidence of overactivation in the bilateral fronto-temporal cortex for processing affective stimuli.
These data suggest that the affective abnormalities so often observed in psychopathic offenders may be linked to deficient or weakened input from limbic structures.
This paper considers neurocognitive models of aggression and relates them to explanations of the antisocial personality disorders. Two forms of aggression are distinguished: reactive aggression elicited in response to frustration/threat and goal directed, instrumental aggression. It is argued that different forms of neurocognitive model are necessary to explain the emergence of these different forms of aggression. Impairments in executive emotional systems (the somatic marker system or the social response reversal system) are related to reactive aggression shown by patients with "acquired sociopathy" due to orbitofrontal cortex lesions. Impairment in the capacity to form associations between emotional unconditioned stimuli, particularly distress cues, and conditioned stimuli (the violence inhibition mechanism model) is related to the instrumental aggression shown by persons with developmental psychopathy.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the human brain was used to compare changes in amygdala activity associated with viewing facial expressions of fear and anger. Pictures of human faces bearing expressions of fear or anger, as well as faces with neutral expressions, were presented to 8 healthy participants. The blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI signal within the dorsal amygdala was significantly greater to Fear versus Anger, in a direct contrast. Significant BOLD signal changes in the ventral amygdala were observed in contrasts of Fear versus Neutral expressions and, in a more spatially circumscribed region, to Anger versus Neutral expressions. Thus, activity in the amygdala is greater to fearful facial expressions when contrasted with either neutral or angry faces. Furthermore, directly contrasting fear with angry faces highlighted involvement of the dorsal amygdaloid region.
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.
The application of functional neuroimaging to the study of human emotion has yielded valuable data; however, the conclusions that may be drawn from any one study are limited. We applied novel statistical techniques to the meta-analysis of 106 PET and fMRI studies of human emotion and tested predictions made by key neuroscientific models. The results demonstrated partial support for asymmetry accounts. Greater left-sided activity was observed for approach emotions, whereas neural activity associated with negative/withdrawal emotions was symmetrical. Support was also found for affect program emotion accounts. The activation distributions associated with fear, disgust, and anger differed significantly. These emotions were most consistently associated in activity in regions associated with selective processing deficits when damaged: the amygdala, the insula and globus pallidus, and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, respectively. In contrast, the distributions for happiness and sadness did not differ. These findings are considered in the context of conceptualizations of the neural correlates of human emotion.
We tested the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with abnormalities in semantic processing of linguistic information. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to elucidate and characterize the neural architecture underlying lexico-semantic processes in criminal psychopathic individuals and in a group of matched control participants. Participants performed a lexical decision task in which blocks of linguistic stimuli alternated with a resting baseline condition. In each lexical decision block, the stimuli were either concrete words and pseudowords or abstract words and pseudowords. Consistent with our hypothesis, psychopathic individuals, relative to controls, showed poorer behavioral performance for processing abstract words. Analysis of the fMRI data for both groups indicated that processing of word stimuli, compared with the resting baseline condition, was associated with neural activation in bilateral fusiform gyrus, anterior cingulate, left middle temporal gyrus, right posterior superior temporal gyrus, and left and right inferior frontal gyrus. Analyses confirmed our prediction that psychopathic individuals would fail to show the appropriate neural differentiation between abstract and concrete stimuli in the right anterior temporal gyrus and surrounding cortex. The results are consistent with other studies of semantic processing in psychopathy and support the theory that psychopathy is associated with right hemisphere abnormalities for processing conceptually abstract material.
Objective: Difficulty with response inhibition is a cardinal symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), combined type. Prefrontal and cingulate brain regions are known to be involved in inhibitory control. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) might establish if these regions differ in their activity in ADHD children relative to healthy comparison subjects. Method: Fifteen healthy comparison subjects and 17 children with ADHD, combined type, completed fMRI studies while performing the Stop Signal Task. Eight ADHD subjects were treatment naive; the remainder had a history of long-term treatment with stimulants, but they were medication free at the time of the fMRI. No subject had a learning disorder or a comorbid psychiatric condition (other than oppositional defiant disorder in the ADHD subjects). Results: Both the ADHD and comparison subjects activated the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on "stop" trials relative to "go" trials; this increase was greater in ADHD subjects. When inhibition was unsuccessful (relative to successful inhibition), healthy comparison subjects strongly activated the anterior cingulate cortex and the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, the ADHD subjects did not show these differences. Activations in treatment-naive and ADHD subjects treated in the long term did not differ significantly in any brain regions. Conclusions: In relation to comparison subjects, ADHD subjects failed to activate the anterior cingulate cortex and the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex after unsuccessful inhibition. These findings appear in treatment-naive ADHD individuals and are unlikely to be an artifact of long-term treatment with stimulants or of abrupt termination of stimulants before imaging.
A sample of 6- to 13-year-old clinic-referred (n = 136) and volunteer (n = 30) participants was investigated for a potential interaction between the quality of parenting that a child receives and callous–unemotional traits in the child for predicting conduct problems. Ineffective parenting was associated with conduct problems only in children without significant levels of callous (e.g., lack of empathy, manipulativeness) and unemotional (e.g., lack of guilt, emotional constrictedness) traits. In contrast, children high on these traits exhibited a significant number of conduct problems, regardless of the quality of parenting they experiences. Results are interpreted in the context of a model that proposed that callous–unemotional traits designate a group of children with conduct problems who have distinct causal factors involved in the development of their problematic behavior.
We tested the hypothesis that the response mobilization that normally accompanies imagery of emotional situations is deficient in psychopaths. Cardiac, electrodermal, and facial muscle responses of 54 prisoners, assigned to low- and high-psychopathy groups using R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, were recorded while subjects imagined fearful and neutral scenes in a cued sentence-processing task. Groups did not differ on self-ratings of fearfulness, imagery ability, or imagery experience. Low-psychopathy subjects showed larger physiological reactions during fearful imagery than high-psychopathy subjects. Extreme scores on the antisocial behavior factor of psychopathy predicted imagery response deficits. Results are consistent with the idea that semantic and emotional processes are dissociated in psychopaths.
This paper investigates the Theory of Mind ability of psychopaths. Happé's (1994) advanced test of Theory of Mind was presented to 25 psychopaths and 25 non-psychopathic incarcerated controls. The psychopaths and the non-psychopathic controls did not differ in their performance on this task. However, the psychopaths were performing significantly better than Happé's most highly able adult autistic population. It was therefore concluded that the psychopath does not have a Theory of Mind deficit. Speculations are made about the different developmental pathways of autism and psychopathy and the differences in the empathy deficit present in both these disorders.
Two measures of psychopathic features in youths, the self-report version of the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) and the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI) were administered to 165 youths in a juvenile diversion program. For both measures, internal consistency was poor for the scales that assess the affective domain of psychopathic features; otherwise, internal consistency was excellent for the YPI and generally superior to that of the APSD. However, the published three-factor models for both measures did not replicate when examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Both measures obtained the expected correlations with measures of a variety of criminal justice (e.g., age of delinquency onset, past year delinquent behavior) and psychological constructs (e.g., internalizing and externalizing behavior), providing evidence of construct validity for both measures. The YPI appears to be the better measure for exploring the construct of psychopathy in adolescents. Recommendations are made concerning revisions to the APSD.
The purpose of the present investigation was threefold: ( 1 ) to develop an empirical taxonomy of female offenders; (2) to relate these findings to empirical taxonomies of male offenders; and (3) to establish the occurrence of a personality type among female offenders approximating that called the psychopath. The women were awaiting trial in a correctional institution and approximately 94% had convictions previous to their current arrest. Personality profiles of these women were subjected to a cluster analysis, and four distinct profile types emerged, classifying three-quarters of the sample. The four types were tentatively identified as being characteristic of primary psychopaths, secondary or neurotic psychopaths, Megargee's overcontrolled personality type, and normal criminals. Similarities with previous research on both female and male offenders were emphasized, and one difference in the nondiscriminating power of the extraversion dimension was noted. The importance of further research with female offenders, and in particular, female psychopaths was stressed. High hostility scores for the entire sample were noted and an interpretation was suggested.
The present study addresses the question of whether it is possible to use a self-report measure of psychopathic traits on non-referred youth samples to identify a subgroup of problematic youths who are particularly problematic and different from other problem youths. A large sample of eighth-grade, non-referred adolescents, and their parents were assessed. Results showed that the adolescents exhibiting a low-socialized psychopathy-like personality constellation had a more frequent, violent, and versatile conduct-problem profile than other low-socialized and well socialized adolescents. The psychopathy-like adolescents also differed from other poorly socialized adolescents in ways that suggested that their etiological background was different from adolescents with non-psychopathy-like conduct problems. We conclude that self-report measures can indeed be useful for research purposes in subtyping youths with conduct problems. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Abnormal affective response in psychopaths is conceptualized within a broad theory of emotion that emphasizes reciprocal appetitive and defensive motivational systems. The startle response is proposed as a specific measure of the directional component of emotional activation. I review the literature that indicates that criminal psycho-paths do not show the expected potentiation of the startle reflex that normally occurs during processing of aversive stimuli such as unpleasant photgraphs or punishment cues. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that this deviant response pattern is specific to individuals who display the classic affective symptoms of psychopathy. The core emotional deviation in psychopathy could be a deficit in fear response, which is defined as a failure of aversive cues to prime normal defensive actions. This emotional deficit may represent an extreme variant of normal temperament.
Although several theoretical models posit that low levels of anxiety are a risk factor for psychopathy and antisocial behavior, a number of studies have reported elevated levels of anxiety among antisocial individuals. Nevertheless, most investigators in this literature have not distinguished between fearfulness and trait anxiety or attempted to separate the antisocial lifestyle dimension from the callous and unemotional dimension of psychopathy. In a study of clinically referred children (N = 143), we found that (a) measures of trait anxiety and fearlessness (low fearfulness) exhibited low correlations; (b) conduct problems tended to be positively correlated with trait anxiety, whereas callous and unemotional traits tended to be negatively correlated with trait anxiety; and (c) controlling statistically for the effects of one dimension increased the divergent correlations of the other dimension with both trait anxiety and fearful inhibition. These findings bear potentially important implications for the diagnosis and etiology of psychopathy and antisocial behavior and suggest that distinctions between trait anxiety and fearful inhibition, as well as between the two dimensions of psychopathy, may help to clarify longstanding confusion in this literature.
This study investigates the ability of psychopathic individuals to process facial emotional expressions. Psychopathic and comparison individuals, as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), were presented with a standardized set of facial expressions depicting six emotions: happy, surprised, disgusted, angry, sad and fearful. Participants observed as these facial expressions slowly evolved through 20 successive frames of increasing intensity. The dependent variables were latency in responding as measured by frame and number of errors. The psychopathic individuals showed selective impairment for the recognition of fearful expressions. The results are interpreted with reference to the Violence Inhibition Mechanism model of psychopathy and the suggestion that psychopathic individuals present with amygdala dysfunction.
Used the repertory grid technique to explore psychopaths' interpersonal and personal construct systems. 17 primary psychopaths, 17 secondary psychopaths, and 12 controls, all under age 40, were studied. 30 situations were used as elements, 10 constructs were elicited, and 8 were supplied. There were 2 administrations of the grid: Ss were asked (a) to construe as individuals, and (b) how they thought people in general construed the situations. Construct systems of the primary psychopaths were lopsided and idiosyncratic but highly consistent over the 2 administrations. Secondary psychopaths and controls manifested less lopsidedness, less consistency, and less social discrepancy. Psychopaths showed a significant degree of general misperception about people in general and a more specific misperception along the dull-exciting construct dimension. Results suggest a clear-cut link between the cognitive and physiological aspects of psychopathy. It is suggested that psychopaths may be deficient in construing the construction processes of other people and that these idiosyncracies in their construct patterning might partially explain their unpredictable behavioral reactions. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A package of computer programs for analysis and visualization of three-dimensional human brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) results is described. The software can color overlay neural activation maps onto higher resolution anatomical scans. Slices in each cardinal plane can be viewed simultaneously. Manual placement of markers on anatomical landmarks allows transformation of anatomical and functional scans into stereotaxic (Talairach-Tournoux) coordinates. The techniques for automatically generating transformed functional data sets from manually labeled anatomical data sets are described. Facilities are provided for several types of statistical analyses of multiple 3D functional data sets. The programs are written in ANSI C and Motif 1.2 to run on Unix workstations.
To examine the relation between specific frontostriatal structures (prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia) and response inhibition deficits observed in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Children with ADHD and age-matched normal controls were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tested on three response inhibition tasks. Behavioral performance was correlated with MRI-based anatomical measures of frontostriatal circuitry (prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia) implicated in ADHD.
First, significant differences in performance by children with ADHD and normal volunteers were observed on all three response inhibition tasks. Second, performance on these tasks correlated only with those anatomical measures of frontostriatal circuitry observed to be abnormal in children with ADHD (e.g., the region of the prefrontal cortex, caudate, and globus pallidus, but not the putamen) in the authors' previous study. Third, significant correlations between task performance and anatomical measures of the prefrontal cortex and caudate nuclei were predominantly in the right hemisphere, supporting a role of right frontostriatal circuitry in response inhibition and ADHD.
The data suggest a role of the right prefrontal cortex in suppressing responses to salient, but otherwise irrelevant events while the basal ganglia appear to be involved in executing these behavioral responses.
In this study, we investigated the psychophysiological responsiveness of psychopathic individuals to distress cues and to threatening and neutral stimuli. Eighteen psychopathic individuals and 18 incarcerated control individuals, identified using the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (Hare, 1991, The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, Toronto: Multi-Health Systems), were shown slides of these three types of stimuli, and their electrodermal responses were recorded. The psychopathic individuals showed (relative to the controls) reduced electrodermal responses to the distress cues. In contrast, the two groups did not differ in their electrodermal responses to the threatening stimuli and to the neutral stimuli. The results are interpreted within the Violence Inhibition Mechanism model (Blair, 1995, Cognition, 57, 1-29) of the psychopathic individual.
To describe the psychometric properties of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime version (K-SADS-PL) interview, which surveys additional disorders not assessed in prior K-SADS, contains improved probes and anchor points, includes diagnosis-specific impairment ratings, generates DSM-III-R and DSM-IV diagnoses, and divides symptoms surveyed into a screening interview and five diagnostic supplements.
Subjects were 55 psychiatric outpatients and 11 normal controls (aged 7 through 17 years). Both parents and children were used as informants. Concurrent validity of the screen criteria and the K-SADS-PL diagnoses was assessed against standard self-report scales. Interrater (n = 15) and test-retest (n = 20) reliability data were also collected (mean retest interval: 18 days; range: 2 to 36 days).
Rating scale data support the concurrent validity of screens and K-SADS-PL diagnoses. Interrater agreement in scoring screens and diagnoses was high (range: 93% to 100%). Test-retest reliability kappa coefficients were in the excellent range for present and/or lifetime diagnoses of major depression, any bipolar, generalized anxiety, conduct, and oppositional defiant disorder (.77 to 1.00) and in the good range for present diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (.63 to .67).
Results suggest the K-SADS-PL generates reliable and valid child psychiatric diagnoses.
We report four experiments investigating the perception of photographic quality continua of interpolated ('morphed') facial expressions derived from prototypes of the 6 emotions in the Ekman and Friesen (1976) series (happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, disgust and anger). In Experiment 1, morphed images made from all possible pairwise combinations of expressions were presented in random order; subjects identified these as belonging to distinct expression categories corresponding to the prototypes at each end of the relevant continuum. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, which also included morphs made from a prototype with a neutral expression, and allowed 'neutral' as a response category. These findings are inconsistent with the view that facial expressions are recognised by locating them along two underlying dimensions, since such a view predicts that at least some transitions between categories should involve neutral regions or identification as a different emotion. Instead, they suggest that facial expressions of basic emotions are recognised by their fit to discrete categories. Experiment 3 used continua involving 6 emotions to demonstrate best discrimination of pairs of stimuli falling across category boundaries; this provides further evidence of categorical perception of facial expressions of emotion. However, in both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, reaction time data showed that increasing distance from the prototype had a definite cost on ability to identify emotion in the resulting morphed face. Moreover, Experiment 4 showed that subjects had some insight into which emotions were blended to create specific morphed images. Hence, categorical perception effects were found even though subjects were sensitive to physical properties of these morphed facial expressions. We suggest that rapid classification of prototypes and better across boundary discriminability reflect the underlying organisation of human categorisation abilities.
Previous studies have found a subgroup of people with autism or Asperger Syndrome who pass second-order tests of theory of mind. However, such tests have a ceiling in developmental terms corresponding to a mental age of about 6 years. It is therefore impossible to say if such individuals are intact or impaired in their theory of mind skills. We report the performance of very high functioning adults with autism or Asperger Syndrome on an adult test of theory of mind ability. The task involved inferring the mental state of a person just from the information in photographs of a person's eyes. Relative to age-matched normal controls and a clinical control group (adults with Tourette Syndrome), the group with autism and Asperger Syndrome were significantly impaired on this task. The autism and Asperger Syndrome sample was also impaired on Happé's strange stories tasks. In contrast, they were unimpaired on two control tasks: recognising gender from the eye region of the face, and recognising basic emotions from the whole face. This provides evidence for subtle mindreading deficits in very high functioning individuals on the autistic continuum.
It is widely recognised that impaired social relations are characteristic of school-aged children with behavioural disorders, and predict a poor long-term outcome (Parker & Asher, 1987). However, little is known about the early antecedents of social impairment in behaviourally disturbed children. The aim of the present study was to explore three areas of potential dysfunction in younger children: theory of mind, emotion understanding, and executive function. Forty preschoolers, rated by their parents on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1994) as "hard to manage" (H2M) were compared with a control group on a set of: (1) theory of mind tasks (including an emotion prediction task involving either a nice or a nasty surprise); (2) emotion understanding stories (that required affective perspective-taking skills as well as situational understanding); and (3) simple executive function tasks (adapted for preschoolers, and tapping inhibitory control, attentional set-shifting, and working memory). Small but significant group differences were found in all three cognitive domains. In particular, hard-to-manage preschoolers showed poor understanding of emotion and executive control, poor prediction or recall of a false belief, and better understanding of the belief-dependency of emotion in the context of a trick than a treat. Moreover, executive function was associated with performance on the theory of mind tasks for the hard-to-manage group alone, suggesting both direct and indirect links between executive dysfunction and disruptive behaviour.
There is increasing support for the existence of 'social intelligence' [Humphrey (1984) Consciousness Regained], independent of general intelligence. Brothers et al. 1990) J. Cog. Neurosci., 4, 107-118] proposed a network of neural regions that comprise the 'social brain': the orbito-frontal cortex (OFC), superior temporal gyrus (STG) and amygdala. We tested Brothers' theory by examining both normal subjects as well as patients with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome (AS), who are well known to have deficits in social intelligence, and perhaps deficits in amygdala function [Bauman & Kemper (1988) J. Neuropath. Exp. Neurol., 47, 369]. We used a test of judging from the expressions of another person's eyes what that other person might be thinking or feeling. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we confirmed Brothers' prediction that the STG and amygdala show increased activation when using social intelligence. Some areas of the prefrontal cortex also showed activation. In contrast, patients with autism or AS activated the fronto-temporal regions but not the amygdala when making mentalistic inferences from the eyes. These results provide support for the social brain theory of normal function, and the amygdala theory of autism.
Abnormal affective response in psychopaths is conceptualized within a broad theory of emotion that emphasizes reciprocal appetitive and defensive motivational systems. The startle response is proposed as a specific measure of the directional component of emotional activation. I review the literature that indicates that criminal psychopaths do not show the expected potentiation of the startle reflex that normally occurs during processing of aversive stimuli such as unpleasant photographs or punishment cues. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that this deviant response pattern is specific to individuals who display the classic affective symptoms of psychopathy. The core emotional deviation in psychopathy could be a deficit in fear response, which is defined as a failure of aversive cues to prime normal defensive actions. This emotional deficit may represent an extreme variant of normal temperament.
To study nonverbal social cue perception in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 86), conduct problems (CP; n = 24), or both disorders (ADHD + CP; n = 63), as well as normal controls (n = 27).
Using a standardized test of receptive nonverbal processing abilities, participants were required to interpret emotional cues from pictures of facial expressions and recordings of voices.
As predicted, children with CP and ADHD were significantly less accurate at interpreting emotions than normal controls. However, children with CP and ADHD differed in the type of errors made: the ADHD group's errors were generally random in nature, whereas the CP group tended to misinterpret emotions as anger. Contrary to our hypothesis, the ADHD + CP group performed better than the ADHD and CP groups, was as accurate as the control group, and displayed a unique pattern of errors.
These results support the idea that social deficiencies associated with CP arise from a biased perception of emotion, whereas social problems in ADHD originate from a failure to attend to the appropriate cues of affect. The findings also support the theory that comorbid ADHD + CP is a distinct disorder.
In 1997 in this Journal we published the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test, as a measure of adult "mentalising". Whilst that test succeeded in discriminating a group of adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA) from controls, it suffered from several psychometric problems. In this paper these limitations are rectified by revising the test. The Revised Eyes Test was administered to a group of adults with AS or HFA (N = 15) and again discriminated these from a large number of normal controls (N = 239) drawn from different samples. In both the clinical and control groups the Eyes Test was inversely correlated with the Autism Spectrum Quotient (the AQ), a measure of autistic traits in adults of normal intelligence. The Revised Eyes Test has improved power to detect subtle individual differences in social sensitivity.
How well do brief screening measures correspond with a full-scale assessment of psychopathy among juvenile offenders? This study compared 3 independent screening measures (the Antisocial Process Screening Device [APSD] Self-Report [A. A. Caputo, P. J. Frick, & S. L. Brodsky, 1999], the APSD Staff Rating [P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, 2001], and the Psychopathy Content Scale [D. C. Murrie & D. G. Cornell, 2000] on the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory [T. Millon, 1993]) with the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; A. E. Forth, D. S. Kosson, & R. D. Hare, in press) in a sample of 117 incarcerated male juveniles. Modest correlations (.30-.49) were found between PCL:YV scores and those of the 3 screening measures, and there was moderate accuracy (67%-82%) in identifying youth who scored relatively high (> or = 25) on the PCL:YV. Although these results support the construct of adolescent psychopathy, they indicate substantial limitations in the use of psychopathy screening measures with juvenile offenders.
The amygdala, hippocampus, ventral, and dorsal prefrontal cortices have been demonstrated to be involved in the response to fearful facial expressions. Little is known, however, about the effect of task instructions upon the intensity of responses within these regions to fear-inducing stimuli.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined neural responses to alternating, 30-sec blocks of fearful and neutral expressions in nine right-handed male volunteers during three different 5-min conditions: 1) passive viewing; 2) performance of a gender-decision task, with no explicit judgment of facial emotion; 3) performance of an emotionality judgment task - an explicitly emotional task.
There was a significant effect of task upon activation within the left hippocampus and the left inferior occipital gyrus, and upon the magnitude of response within the left hippocampus, with maximal activation in these regions occurring during passive viewing, and minimal during performance of the explicit task. Performance of the gender-decision and explicit tasks, but not passive viewing, was also associated with activation within ventral frontal cortex.
Neural responses to fearful facial expressions are modulated by task instructions.
Certain goal-directed behaviors depend critically upon interactions between orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and basolateral amygdala (ABL). Here we describe direct neurophysiological evidence of this cooperative function. We recorded from OFC in intact and ABL-lesioned rats learning odor discrimination problems. As rats learned these problems, we found that lesioned rats exhibited marked changes in the information represented in OFC during odor cue sampling. Lesioned rats had fewer cue-selective neurons in OFC after learning; the cue-selective population in lesioned rats did not include neurons that were also responsive in anticipation of the predicted outcome; and the cue-activated representations that remained in lesioned rats were less associative and more often bound to cue identity. The results provide a neural substrate for representing acquired value and features of the predicted outcome during cue sampling, disruption of which could account for deficits in goal-directed behavior after damage to this system.
There is debate in cognitive neuroscience whether conscious versus unconscious processing represents a categorical or a quantitative distinction. The purpose of the study was to explore this matter using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We first established objective thresholds of the critical temporal parameters for overt and covert presentations of fear and disgust. Next we applied these stimulus parameters in an fMRI experiment to determine whether non-consciously perceived (covert) facial expressions of fear and disgust show the same double dissociation (amygdala response to fear, insula to disgust) observed with consciously perceived (overt) stimuli. A backward masking paradigm was used. In the psychophysics experiment, the following parameters were established: 30-ms target duration for the covert condition, and 170-ms target duration for the overt condition. Results of the block-design fMRI study indicated substantial differences underlying the perception of fearful and disgusted facial expressions, with significant effects of both emotion and target duration. Findings for the overt condition (170 ms) confirm previous evidence of amygdala activation to fearful faces, and insula activation to disgusted faces, and a double dissociation between these two emotions. In the covert condition (30 ms), the amygdala was not activated to fear, nor was the insula activated to disgust. Overall, findings demonstrate significant differences between the neural responses to fear and to disgust, and between the covert presentations of these two emotions. These results therefore suggest distinct neural correlates of conscious and unconscious emotion perception.
This article considers potential roles of orbital frontal cortex in the modulation of antisocial behavior. Two forms of aggression are distinguished: reactive aggression elicited in response to frustration/threat and goal directed, instrumental aggression. It is suggested that orbital frontal cortex is directly involved in the modulation of reactive aggression. It is argued that orbital frontal cortex does not "inhibit" reactive aggression but rather may both increase or decrease its probability as a function of social cues present in the environment. Early dysfunction in this function of orbital frontal cortex may be linked to the development of Borderline Personality Disorder. Instrumental aggression is linked to a fundamental failure in moral socialization. However, the available data suggest that the amygdala, but not orbital frontal cortex, is required for functions such as aversive conditioning and passive avoidance learning that are necessary for moral socialization. Psychopathic individuals who present with significant instrumental aggression, are impaired in aversive conditioning and passive avoidance learning and show evidence of amygdala dysfunction. Orbital frontal cortex and the amygdala are involved in response reversal where instrumental responses must be reversed following contingency change. Impairments in response reversal are also seen in psychopathic individuals. However, it remains unclear whether impairment in response reversal per se is associated with antisocial behavior.
It has been established that individuals who score high on measures of psychopathy demonstrate difficulty when performing tasks requiring the interpretation of other's emotional states. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relation of emotion and cognition to individual differences on a standard psychopathy personality inventory (PPI) among a nonpsychiatric population.
Twenty participants completed the PPI. Following survey completion, a mean split of their scores on the emotional-interpersonal factor was performed, and participants were placed into a high or low group. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected while participants performed a recognition task that required attention be given to either the affect or identity of target stimuli.
No significant behavioral differences were found. In response to the affect recognition task, significant differences between high- and low-scoring subjects were observed in several subregions of the frontal cortex, as well as the amygdala. No significant differences were found between the groups in response to the identity recognition condition.
Results indicate that participants scoring high on the PPI, although not behaviorally distinct, demonstrate a significantly different pattern of neural activity (as measured by blood oxygen level-dependent contrast)in response to tasks that require affective processing. The results suggest a unique neural signature associated with personality differences in a nonpsychiatric population.