
doi: 10.1111/jopy.12113
pmid: 25041571
AbstractPsychopathy is a personality disorder that involves a constellation of traits including callous‐unemotionality, manipulativeness, and impulsiveness. Here we review recent advances in the research of functional neural correlates of psychopathic personality traits in adults. We first provide a concise overview of functional neuroimaging findings in clinical samples diagnosed with the PCL‐R. We then review studies with community samples that have focused on how individual differences in psychopathic traits (variously measured) relate to individual differences in brain function. Where appropriate, we draw parallels between the findings from these studies and those with clinical samples. Extant data suggest that individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits show lower activity in affect‐processing brain areas to emotional/salient stimuli, and that attenuated activity may be dependent on the precise content of the task. They also seem to show higher activity in regions typically associated with reward processing and cognitive control in tasks involving moral processing, decision making, and reward. Furthermore, affective‐interpersonal and lifestyle‐antisocial facets of psychopathy appear to be associated with different patterns of atypical neural activity. Neuroimaging findings from community samples typically mirror those observed in clinical samples, and largely support the notion that psychopathy is a dimensional construct.
Adult, Functional Neuroimaging, Emotions, Brain, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Facial Expression, Cognition, Reward, Social Perception, Humans, Empathy
Adult, Functional Neuroimaging, Emotions, Brain, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Facial Expression, Cognition, Reward, Social Perception, Humans, Empathy
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 56 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
