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Mitchell DGV, Rhodes RA, Pine DS, Blair RJR. The contribution of ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to response reversal. Behav Brain Res 2007; 187:80-7. [PMID: 17950474 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2007.08.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2007] [Revised: 08/14/2007] [Accepted: 08/27/2007] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Studies investigating response reversal consistently implicate regions of medial and lateral prefrontal cortex when reinforcement contingencies change. However, it is unclear from these studies how these regions give rise to the individual components of response reversal, such as reinforcement value encoding, response inhibition, and response change. Here we report a novel instrumental learning task designed to determine whether regions implicated in processing reversal errors are uniquely involved in this process, or whether they play a more general role in representing response competition, reinforcement value, or punishment value in the absence of demands for response change. In line with previous findings, reversal errors activated orbitofrontal cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, caudate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These regions also showed increased activity to errors in the absence of contingency changes. In addition, ventrolateral PFC, caudate, and dorsolateral PFC each exhibited increased activity following correct reversals. Activity in these regions was not significantly modulated by changes in reinforcement value that were not sufficient to make an alternative response advantageous. These data do not support punishment-processing or prepotent response inhibition accounts of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex function. Instead, they support recent conceptualizations of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex function that implicate this region in resolving response competition by manipulating the representation of either motor response options, or object features. These data also suggest that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex plays a role in reversal learning, probably through top down attentional control of object or reinforcement features when task demands increase.
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Marsh AA, Blair RJR. Deficits in facial affect recognition among antisocial populations: a meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2007; 32:454-65. [PMID: 17915324 PMCID: PMC2255599 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 504] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2007] [Revised: 08/22/2007] [Accepted: 08/23/2007] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with disorders marked by antisocial behavior frequently show deficits in recognizing displays of facial affect. Antisociality may be associated with specific deficits in identifying fearful expressions, which would implicate dysfunction in neural structures that subserve fearful expression processing. A meta-analysis of 20 studies was conducted to assess: (a) if antisocial populations show any consistent deficits in recognizing six emotional expressions; (b) beyond any generalized impairment, whether specific fear recognition deficits are apparent; and (c) if deficits in fear recognition are a function of task difficulty. Results show a robust link between antisocial behavior and specific deficits in recognizing fearful expressions. This impairment cannot be attributed solely to task difficulty. These results suggest dysfunction among antisocial individuals in specified neural substrates, namely the amygdala, involved in processing fearful facial affect.
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Mitchell DGV, Luo Q, Mondillo K, Vythilingam M, Finger EC, Blair RJR. The interference of operant task performance by emotional distracters: an antagonistic relationship between the amygdala and frontoparietal cortices. Neuroimage 2007; 40:859-868. [PMID: 18234519 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2006] [Revised: 07/10/2007] [Accepted: 08/07/2007] [Indexed: 10/22/2022] Open
Abstract
This fMRI study investigates neural activity associated with the interfering effects of emotional distracters. While in the scanner, participants made simple motor responses to target stimuli that were preceded and followed by positive, negative, or neutral images. Despite instructions to disregard the pictorial images, participants were slower to respond in the presence of positive or negative relative to neutral distracters, and significantly slower for negative relative to positive distracters. Enhanced activity in the amygdala and visual cortex was evident during trials that included positive and negative distracters. In contrast, increased activity in inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47) was only observed during trials that involved negative distracters. Connectivity analysis showed that activity in right amygdala correlated with activity in cingulate gyrus, posterior cingulate, middle temporal cortex, and was negatively correlated with activity in lateral superior frontal gyrus, middle frontal/orbital gyrus, and parietal cortex. The pattern of neural activity observed was interpreted within the framework of current cognitive models of attention. During a task demonstrating behavioural interference in the context of emotional distracters, increased activity in neural regions implicated in emotional processing (the amygdala) was associated with reduced activity in regions thought to be involved in exerting attentional control over task-relevant sensory representations (a frontoparietal network).
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Blair RJR. The amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in morality and psychopathy. Trends Cogn Sci 2007; 11:387-92. [PMID: 17707682 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2007.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 335] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2007] [Revised: 06/27/2007] [Accepted: 07/31/2007] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Recent work has implicated the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in morality and, when dysfunctional, psychopathy. This model proposes that the amygdala, through stimulus-reinforcement learning, enables the association of actions that harm others with the aversive reinforcement of the victims' distress. Consequent information on reinforcement expectancy, fed forward to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, can guide the healthy individual away from moral transgressions. In psychopathy, dysfunction in these structures means that care-based moral reasoning is compromised and the risk that antisocial behavior is used instrumentally to achieve goals is increased.
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Luo Q, Mitchell D, Jones M, Mondillo K, Vythilingam M, Blair RJR. Common regions of dorsal anterior cingulate and prefrontal-parietal cortices provide attentional control of distracters varying in emotionality and visibility. Neuroimage 2007; 38:631-9. [PMID: 17889565 PMCID: PMC2071928 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.07.051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2007] [Revised: 07/16/2007] [Accepted: 07/23/2007] [Indexed: 10/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Top-down attentional control is necessary to ensure successful task performance in the presence of distracters. Lateral prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex have been previously implicated in top-down attentional control. However, it is unclear whether these regions are engaged independent of distracter type or whether, as has been suggested for anterior cingulate cortex, different regions provide attentional control over emotional versus other forms of salient distracter. In the current task, subjects viewed targets that were preceded by distracters that varied in both emotionality and visibility. We found that behaviorally, the presence of preceding distracters significantly interfered with target judgment. At the neural level, increases in the emotional and visual saliency of distracters were both associated with increased activity in proximal regions of prefrontal, parietal and cingulate cortex. Moreover, a conjunction analysis indicated considerable overlap in the regions of prefrontal, parietal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex responding to distracters of increased emotionality and visibility.
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81
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McClure EB, Monk CS, Nelson EE, Parrish JM, Adler A, Blair RJR, Fromm S, Charney DS, Leibenluft E, Ernst M, Pine DS. Abnormal attention modulation of fear circuit function in pediatric generalized anxiety disorder. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2007; 64:97-106. [PMID: 17199059 DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.64.1.97] [Citation(s) in RCA: 294] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
CONTEXT Considerable work implicates abnormal neural activation and disrupted attention to facial-threat cues in adult anxiety disorders. However, in pediatric anxiety, no research has examined attention modulation of neural response to threat cues. OBJECTIVE To determine whether attention modulates amygdala and cortical responses to facial-threat cues differentially in adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder and in healthy adolescents. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Government clinical research institute. PARTICIPANTS Fifteen adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder and 20 controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Blood oxygenation level-dependent signal as measured via functional magnetic resonance imaging. During imaging, participants completed a face-emotion rating task that systematically manipulated attention. RESULTS While attending to their own subjective fear, patients, but not controls, showed greater activation to fearful faces than to happy faces in a distributed network including the amygdala, ventral prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex (P<.05, small-volume corrected, for all). Right amygdala findings appeared particularly strong. Functional connectivity analyses demonstrated positive correlations among the amygdala, ventral prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. CONCLUSIONS This is the first evidence in juveniles that generalized anxiety disorder-associated patterns of pathologic fear circuit activation are particularly evident during certain attention states. Specifically, fear circuit hyperactivation occurred in an attention state involving focus on subjectively experienced fear. These findings underscore the importance of attention and its interaction with emotion in shaping the function of the adolescent human fear circuit.
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Marsh AA, Blair KS, Vythilingam M, Busis S, Blair RJR. Response options and expectations of reward in decision-making: the differential roles of dorsal and rostral anterior cingulate cortex. Neuroimage 2007; 35:979-88. [PMID: 17292631 PMCID: PMC1868682 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.11.044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2006] [Revised: 10/30/2006] [Accepted: 11/04/2006] [Indexed: 10/23/2022] Open
Abstract
This study examined the functional specificity of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC)/medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) regarding two elements of decision-making: the number of available decision options and the level of expected reward. Eighteen healthy participants were trained to recognize the reward value associated with several visual stimuli, and then were presented with groups of two, three, or four of these stimuli and asked to select the object associated with the highest reward. BOLD activation in dACC/dorsomedial frontal cortex (dmFC) was strongly positively associated with increases in the number of decision options but only weakly associated with increases in the level of expected reward. Activation in rACC/mPFC and amygdala was related to increases in the level of expected reward but not increases in the number of decision options. The current results suggest functional specificity with respect to the roles of dACC/dmFC and rACC/mPFC in decision-making.
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83
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Budhani S, Marsh AA, Pine DS, Blair RJR. Neural correlates of response reversal: Considering acquisition. Neuroimage 2007; 34:1754-65. [PMID: 17188518 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.08.060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2005] [Revised: 08/27/2006] [Accepted: 08/29/2006] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous work on response reversal has typically used a single pair of stimuli that serially reverse. This conflation of acquisition and reversal processes has prevented an examination of the functional role of neural systems implicated in response reversal during acquisition despite the relevance of such data in evaluating accounts of response reversal. In the current study, participants encountered 16 independent reversing stimulus pairs in the context of a probabilistic response reversal paradigm. Functional regions of interest identified as involved in response reversal through a contrast used in the previous literature (punished errors made in the reversal phase versus rewarded correct responses), were interrogated across conditions. Consistent with suggestions that middle frontal cortex codes reward, this region showed significantly greater responses to rewarded rather than punished trials irrespective of accuracy or learning phase (acquisition or reversal). Consistent with the suggestion that this coding of the expectation of reinforcement is acquired via input from the amygdala, we observed significant positive connectivity between activity within the amygdala and a region of rostral anterior cingulate cortex highly proximal to this region of middle frontal/mesial prefrontal cortex. In contrast, inferior frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and caudate showed greater responses to punished errors than to the rewarded correct responses. These three regions also showed significant activation to rewarded errors during acquisition, in contrast to positions suggesting that inferior frontal cortex represents punishment or suppresses previously rewarded responses. Moreover, a connectivity analysis with an anterior cingulate cortex seed revealed highly significant positive connectivity among them. The implications of these data for recent accounts of response reversal and of response reversal impairments in specific neuropsychiatric populations are discussed.
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84
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Blair RJR. Aggression, psychopathy and free will from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW 2007; 25:321-31. [PMID: 17393398 DOI: 10.1002/bsl.750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
This article considers the notion of free will in the context of aggression and psychopathy research. The philosophical literature is very briefly considered to determine under what assumptions free will can be considered to exist. However, as the issue of free will is very difficult to address directly, the prime focus of this article is on issues raised in the philosophical debate, that may be empirically tractable and that are relevant to the understanding of psychopathy. Specifically, the following issues are considered: (1) The distinction between automatic and controlled processing; (2) Impairment related to automatic processing in individuals with psychopathy; and (3) Impairment related to controlled behavior in individuals with psychopathy. It is concluded that, while there is not a direct mapping of the automatic versus controlled processing dichotomy on to the reactive versus instrumental aggression dichotomy, some overlap can be considered. As such, it is possible to consider that certain episodes of reactive aggression might be considered to occur in the absence of free will. However, instrumental aggression, at least from a compatibilist perspective, must involve free will.
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85
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Mitchell DGV, Nakic M, Fridberg D, Kamel N, Pine DS, Blair RJR. The impact of processing load on emotion. Neuroimage 2006; 34:1299-309. [PMID: 17161627 PMCID: PMC1909754 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.10.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 106] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2006] [Revised: 10/02/2006] [Accepted: 10/10/2006] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
This event-related fMRI study examined the impact of processing load on the BOLD response to emotional expressions. Participants were presented with composite stimuli consisting of neutral and fearful faces upon which semi-transparent words were superimposed. This manipulation held stimulus-driven features constant across multiple levels of processing load. Participants made either (1) gender discriminations based on the face; (2) case judgments based on the words; or (3) syllable number judgments based on the words. A significant main effect for processing load was revealed in prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, visual processing areas, and amygdala. Critically, enhanced activity in the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex seen during gender discriminations was significantly reduced during the linguistic task conditions. A connectivity analysis conducted to investigate theories of cognitive modulation of emotion showed that activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was inversely related to activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Together, the data suggest that the processing of task-irrelevant emotional information, like neutral information, is subject to the effects of processing load and is under top-down control.
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86
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Lynch TR, Rosenthal MZ, Kosson DS, Cheavens JS, Lejuez CW, Blair RJR. Heightened sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion in borderline personality disorder. EMOTION (WASHINGTON, D.C.) 2006. [PMID: 17144755 DOI: 10.1037/1528–3542.6.4.647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have been hypothesized to exhibit significant problems associated with emotional sensitivity. The current study examined emotional sensitivity (i.e., low threshold for recognition of emotional stimuli) in BPD by comparing 20 individuals with BPD and 20 normal controls on their accuracy in identifying emotional expressions. Results demonstrated that, as facial expressions morphed from neutral to maximum intensity, participants with BPD correctly identified facial affect at an earlier stage than did healthy controls. Participants with BPD were more sensitive than healthy controls in identifying emotional expressions in general, regardless of valence. These findings could not be explained by participants with BPD responding faster with more errors. Overall, results appear to support the contention that heightened emotional sensitivity may be a core feature of BPD.
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87
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Marsh AA, Finger EC, Buzas B, Soliman N, Richell RA, Vythilingham M, Pine DS, Goldman D, Blair RJR. Impaired recognition of fear facial expressions in 5-HTTLPR S-polymorphism carriers following tryptophan depletion. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2006; 189:387-94. [PMID: 17013635 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-006-0581-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2006] [Accepted: 08/29/2006] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
RATIONALE Genotype at the 5' promoter region (5-HTTLPR) of the serotonin transporter has been implicated in moderating the effects of acute tryptophan depletion on neurocognitive functioning. Acute tryptophan depletion has been associated with the processing of fear-relevant cues, such as emotional expressions, but the effect of genotype at the 5-HTTLPR has not been assessed. OBJECTIVE The present study investigated the effects of acute tryptophan depletion on the recognition of standardized facial expressions of emotions in healthy volunteers classified as ll homozygotes or s carriers. MATERIALS AND METHODS A double-blind between-groups design was used with volunteers randomly selected to ingest capsules containing an amino acid mixture specifically lacking tryptophan, or placebo capsules containing lactose. 5 h after capsule ingestion, subjects were required to identify anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise expressions that progressed from neutral to each full emotional expression in 5% steps. RESULTS Tryptophan depletion significantly impaired the recognition of fearful facial expressions in s carriers but not ll homozygotes. This impairment was specific to fear expressions. No significant differences in the recognition of other expressions were found. Free tryptophan levels were correlated with fear recognition in s carriers but not ll homozygotes. CONCLUSIONS The effects of acute tryptophan depletion on the processing of emotional expressions varies as a function of genotype at the 5-HTTLPR. Depletion impairs the recognition of fear in s carriers but not ll homozygotes. This finding reinforces the importance of considering genotype when assessing the behavioral effects of pharmacologic modulation.
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88
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Lynch TR, Rosenthal MZ, Kosson DS, Cheavens JS, Lejuez CW, Blair RJR. Heightened sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion in borderline personality disorder. Emotion 2006; 6:647-655. [PMID: 17144755 DOI: 10.1037/1528-3542.6.4.647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 167] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have been hypothesized to exhibit significant problems associated with emotional sensitivity. The current study examined emotional sensitivity (i.e., low threshold for recognition of emotional stimuli) in BPD by comparing 20 individuals with BPD and 20 normal controls on their accuracy in identifying emotional expressions. Results demonstrated that, as facial expressions morphed from neutral to maximum intensity, participants with BPD correctly identified facial affect at an earlier stage than did healthy controls. Participants with BPD were more sensitive than healthy controls in identifying emotional expressions in general, regardless of valence. These findings could not be explained by participants with BPD responding faster with more errors. Overall, results appear to support the contention that heightened emotional sensitivity may be a core feature of BPD.
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Mitchell DGV, Richell RA, Leonard A, Blair RJR. Emotion at the expense of cognition: psychopathic individuals outperform controls on an operant response task. JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 2006; 115:559-66. [PMID: 16866596 DOI: 10.1037/0021-843x.115.3.559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The impact of emotional stimuli on a simple motor response task in individuals with psychopathy and comparison individuals was investigated. Psychopathy was assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (Hare, 1991). Participants were presented with the Emotional Interrupt Task, in which they responded with left and right button presses to shapes that were temporally bracketed by positive, negative, and neutral visual images taken from the International Affective Picture System. The comparison group showed increased response latencies if the shape was temporally bracketed by either a positive or negative emotional stimulus relative to a neutral stimulus. Individuals with psychopathy did not show this modulation of reaction time for either positive or negative emotional stimuli. Results are discussed with reference to current models regarding the modulation of attention by emotion and the emotional impairment seen in individuals with psychopathy.
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90
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Blair KS, Richell RA, Mitchell DGV, Leonard A, Morton J, Blair RJR. They know the words, but not the music: Affective and semantic priming in individuals with psychopathy. Biol Psychol 2006; 73:114-23. [PMID: 16574302 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.12.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2004] [Accepted: 12/24/2005] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Previous work has indicated dysfunctional affect-language interactions in individuals with psychopathy through use of the lexical decision task. However, it has been uncertain as to whether these deficits actually reflect impaired affect-language interactions or a more fundamental deficit in general semantic processing. In this study, we examined affective priming and semantic priming (dependent measures were reaction times and error rates) in individuals with psychopathy and comparison individuals, classified according to the psychopathy checklist revised (PCL-R) [Hare, R.D., 1991. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. Multi-Health Systems, Toronto, Ont] Individuals with psychopathy showed significantly less affective priming relative to comparison individuals. In contrast, the two groups showed comparable levels of semantic priming. The results are discussed with reference to current models of psychopathy.
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Blair KS, Newman C, Mitchell DGV, Richell RA, Leonard A, Morton J, Blair RJR. Differentiating among prefrontal substrates in psychopathy: neuropsychological test findings. Neuropsychology 2006; 20:153-165. [PMID: 16594776 DOI: 10.1037/0894-4105.20.2.153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Frontal lobe and consequent executive dysfunction have long been related to psychopathy. More recently, there have been suggestions that specific regions of frontal cortex, rather than all of frontal cortex, may be implicated in psychopathy. To examine this issue, the authors presented 25 individuals with psychopathy and 30 comparison individuals with measures preferentially indexing the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC; object alternation task), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC; spatial alternation task), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; number-Stroop reading and counting tasks). The individuals with psychopathy showed significant impairment on the measure preferentially sensitive to OFC functioning. In contrast, the 2 groups did not show impairment on the measures preferentially sensitive to the functioning of the DLPFC or ACC. These results are interpreted with reference to executive dysfunction accounts of the disorder.
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92
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Monk CS, Nelson EE, McClure EB, Mogg K, Bradley BP, Leibenluft E, Blair RJR, Chen G, Charney DS, Ernst M, Pine DS. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation and attentional bias in response to angry faces in adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder. Am J Psychiatry 2006; 163:1091-7. [PMID: 16741211 DOI: 10.1176/ajp.2006.163.6.1091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 291] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE While adolescent anxiety disorders represent prevalent, debilitating conditions, few studies have explored their brain physiology. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a behavioral measure of attention to angry faces, the authors evaluated differences in response between healthy adolescents and adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder. METHOD In the primary trials of interest, 18 adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder and 15 comparison subjects of equivalent age/gender/IQ viewed angry/neutral face pairs during fMRI acquisition. Following the presentation of each face pair, subjects pressed a button to indicate whether a subsequent asterisk appeared on the same (congruent) or opposite (incongruent) side as the angry face. Reaction time differences between congruent and incongruent face trials provided a measure of attention bias to angry faces. RESULTS Relative to the comparison subjects, patients with generalized anxiety disorder manifested greater right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation to trials containing angry faces. Patients with generalized anxiety disorder also showed greater attention bias away from angry faces. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation differences remained evident when differences in attention bias were covaried. Finally, in an examination among patients of the association between degree of anxiety and brain activation, the authors found that as ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation increased, severity of anxiety symptoms diminished. CONCLUSIONS Adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder show greater right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation and attentional bias away from angry faces than healthy adolescents. Among patients, increased ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation is associated with less severe anxiety, suggesting that this activation may serve as a compensatory response.
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93
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Mitchell DGV, Avny SB, Blair RJR. Divergent patterns of aggressive and neurocognitive characteristics in acquired versus developmental psychopathy. Neurocase 2006; 12:164-78. [PMID: 16801152 DOI: 10.1080/13554790600611288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
An analogy is often drawn between patients with personality changes following orbitofrontal cortex lesions and individuals with developmental psychopathy. We present patient CL, who had acquired psychopathy following an orbitofrontal cortex lesion. Unlike previous studies, CL was assessed on a valid and reliable measure of psychopathy and was compared with controls and patients with developmental psychopathy on measures of instrumental (re)learning, extinction, emotional processing, and social cognition. The results provide further support for the notion that acquired and developmental forms of psychopathy are associated with dissociable neurocognitive deficits that leave each at different levels of risk for reactive and instrumental aggression.
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Abstract
Four models of psychopathy (frontal lobe dysfunction, response set modulation, fear dysfunction, and violence inhibition mechanism hypotheses) are reviewed from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. Each model is considered both with respect to the psychopathy data and, more importantly, for the present purposes, with respect to the broader cognitive neuroscience fields to which the model refers (e.g., models of attention with respect to the response set modulation account and models of emotion with respect to the fear dysfunction and violence inhibition mechanism models). The paper concludes with an articulation of the more recent integrated emotion systems model, an account inspired both by recent findings in affective cognitive neuroscience as well as in the study of psychopathy. Some directions for future work are considered.
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95
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Nakic M, Smith BW, Busis S, Vythilingam M, Blair RJR. The impact of affect and frequency on lexical decision: the role of the amygdala and inferior frontal cortex. Neuroimage 2006; 31:1752-61. [PMID: 16647271 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.02.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2005] [Revised: 02/06/2006] [Accepted: 02/07/2006] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The current study used event-related fMRI to examine BOLD responses associated with two factors that behaviorally determine speed of lexical decision: frequency and emotion. Thirteen healthy adults performed a visual lexical decision task, discriminating between words and orthographically and phonologically legal nonwords. The study involved a 2 (Frequency: high and low) x 3 (Emotional arousal: highly negative, mildly negative, and neutral words) design with word categories matched for number of letters and concreteness. There were significant main effects for both frequency and emotion in lexical decision reaction times but no significant interaction. Negative word lexical decisions were associated with increased activation in bilateral amygdala and middle temporal cortex as well as rostral anterior and posterior cingulate cortex. Low-frequency word lexical decisions, relative to high-frequency word lexical decisions, were associated with increased bilateral activity in inferior frontal cortex. Inferior frontal cortex activation was particularly low during lexical decision for high-frequency emotional words but significant for high-frequency neutral emotional words. We suggest that this is because the semantic representation of high-frequency emotional words may receive sufficient additional augmentation via the reciprocal activation from the amygdala such that selective augmentation by inferior frontal cortex to achieve lexical decision is unnecessary.
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Mitchell DGV, Fine C, Richell RA, Newman C, Lumsden J, Blair KS, Blair RJR. Instrumental learning and relearning in individuals with psychopathy and in patients with lesions involving the amygdala or orbitofrontal cortex. Neuropsychology 2006; 20:280-289. [PMID: 16719621 DOI: 10.1037/0894-4105.20.3.280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous work has shown that individuals with psychopathy are impaired on some forms of associative learning, particularly stimulus-reinforcement learning (Blair et al., 2004; Newman & Kosson, 1986). Animal work suggests that the acquisition of stimulus-reinforcement associations requires the amygdala (Baxter & Murray, 2002). Individuals with psychopathy also show impoverished reversal learning (Mitchell, Colledge, Leonard, & Blair, 2002). Reversal learning is supported by the ventrolateral and orbitofrontal cortex (Rolls, 2004). In this paper we present experiments investigating stimulus-reinforcement learning and relearning in patients with lesions of the orbitofrontal cortex or amygdala, and individuals with developmental psychopathy without known trauma. The results are interpreted with reference to current neurocognitive models of stimulus-reinforcement learning, relearning, and developmental psychopathy.
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Luo Q, Nakic M, Wheatley T, Richell R, Martin A, Blair RJR. The neural basis of implicit moral attitude—An IAT study using event-related fMRI. Neuroimage 2006; 30:1449-57. [PMID: 16418007 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2005] [Revised: 11/01/2005] [Accepted: 11/02/2005] [Indexed: 10/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent models of morality have suggested the importance of affect-based automatic moral attitudes in moral reasoning. However, previous investigations of moral reasoning have frequently relied upon explicit measures that are susceptible to voluntary control. To investigate participant's automatic moral attitudes, we used a morality Implicit Association Test (IAT). Participants rated the legality of visually depicted legal and illegal behaviors of two different intensity levels (e.g., high intensity illegal = interpersonal violence; low intensity illegal = vandalism) both when the target concept (e.g., illegal) was behaviorally paired with an associated attribute (e.g., bad; congruent condition) or an unassociated attribute (e.g., good; incongruent condition). Behaviorally, an IAT effect was shown; RTs were faster in the congruent rather than incongruent conditions. At the neural level, implicit moral attitude, as indexed by increased BOLD response as a function of stimulus intensity, was associated with increased activation in the right amygdala and the ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex. In addition, performance on incongruent trials relative to congruent trials was associated with increased activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 47), left subgenual cingulate gyrus (BA 25), bilateral premotor cortex (BA 6) and the left caudate. The functional contributions of these regions in moral reasoning are discussed.
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98
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King JA, Blair RJR, Mitchell DGV, Dolan RJ, Burgess N. Doing the right thing: A common neural circuit for appropriate violent or compassionate behavior. Neuroimage 2006; 30:1069-76. [PMID: 16307895 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.10.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2005] [Revised: 09/28/2005] [Accepted: 10/05/2005] [Indexed: 10/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans have a considerable facility to adapt their behavior in a manner that is appropriate to social or societal context. A failure of this ability can lead to social exclusion and is a feature of disorders such as psychopathy and disruptive behavior disorder. We investigated the neural basis of this ability using a customized video game played by 12 healthy participants in an fMRI scanner. Two conditions involved extreme examples of context-appropriate action: shooting an aggressive humanoid assailant or healing a passive wounded person. Two control conditions involved carefully matched stimuli paired with inappropriate actions: shooting the person or healing the assailant. Surprisingly, the same circuit, including the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, was activated when participants acted in a context-appropriate manner, whether being compassionate towards an injured conspecific or aggressive towards a violent assailant. The findings indicate a common system that guides behavioral expression appropriate to social or societal context irrespective of its aggressive or compassionate nature.
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99
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Abstract
The current review focuses on the construct of psychopathy, conceptualized as a clinical entity that is fundamentally distinct from a heterogeneous collection of syndromes encompassed by the term 'conduct disorder'. We will provide an account of the development of psychopathy at multiple levels: ultimate causal (the genetic or social primary cause), molecular, neural, cognitive and behavioral. The following main claims will be made: (1) that there is a stronger genetic as opposed to social ultimate cause to this disorder. The types of social causes proposed (e.g., childhood sexual/physical abuse) should elevate emotional responsiveness, not lead to the specific form of reduced responsiveness seen in psychopathy; (2) The genetic influence leads to the emotional dysfunction that is the core of psychopathy; (3) The genetic influence at the molecular level remains unknown. However, it appears to impact the functional integrity of the amygdala and orbital/ventrolateral frontal cortex (and possibly additional systems); (4) Disruption within these two neural systems leads to impairment in the ability to form stimulus-reinforcement associations and to alter stimulus-response associations as a function of contingency change. These impairments disrupt the impact of standard socialization techniques and increase the risk for frustration-induced reactive aggression respectively.
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100
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Kosson DS, Budhani S, Nakic M, Chen G, Saad ZS, Vythilingam M, Pine DS, Blair RJR. The role of the amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate in encoding expected outcomes during learning. Neuroimage 2006; 29:1161-72. [PMID: 16387514 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.07.060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2005] [Revised: 07/07/2005] [Accepted: 07/27/2005] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Successful passive avoidance learning is thought to require the use of learned stimulus-reinforcement associations to guide decision making [Baxter, M.G., Murray, E.A., 2002. The amygdala and reward. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience 3, 563-573]. The current experiment investigated the neural correlates of successful passive avoidance learning in 19 healthy adults. Behaviorally, subjects showed a distinct pattern of performance: early indiscriminate responding to stimuli (pre-criterion performance), followed by relatively rapid learning before a plateau of successful performance (post-criterion performance). Neural responses to post-criterion correct responses were compared with neural responses to both incorrect responses and pre-criterion correct responses. Post-criterion correct responding was associated with increased activation in regions including rostral anterior cingulate, insula, caudate, hippocampal regions, and the amygdala.
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