Theory of mind and mentalizing ability in antisocial personality disorders with and without psychopathy

Fine cuts of empathy and the amygdala: dissociable deficits in psychopathy and autism

In the current paper, the "fine cuts" approach advocated by Uta Frith is applied to our understanding of empathy and amygdala dysfunction in two disorders, psychopathy and autism. A fine cut is made between cognitive (i.e., Theory of Mind) and emotional empathy. The literature with respect to psychopathy and autism and these two functions is then considered. A fine cut is also made between the amygdala's role in stimulus-reinforcement association and specific aspects of social cognition. Again the literature with respect to psychopathy and autism and these two functions of the amygdala is considered. It is concluded that while both conditions can be considered disorders of social cognition, fine cuts can be made dissociating the impairments associated with each.

The super-ordinate nature of the psychopathy checklist-revised

Psychopathy, while perhaps the earliest and most recognized personality disorder, is the subject of intense debate about its nature and measurement. The most recent proposal on its structural nature suggests that it is a multifaceted construct, made up of at least four dimensions reflecting Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle, and Antisocial anomalies (Hare & Neumann, 2005, 2006). These dimensions are significantly interrelated, suggesting that they are indicators for a super-ordinate factor. The nature of this higher-order factor may reflect the unifying feature which comprehensively defines the disorder. To examine this super-factor, the current study used several very large data sets of male (N = 4865) and female (N = 1099) offenders, and forensic psychiatric patients (N = 965), who were assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003). Structural equation modeling results indicated that the four first-order factor dimensions could be explained by a single second-order cohesive super-factor.

What do you think you're looking at? Investigating social cognition in young offenders

AIM

This small study was designed to assess the nature and severity of social-cognitive deficits in antisocial adolescents.

METHOD

Thirty-seven boys aged 15-18 from a Young Offenders Institute and Community College participated. They were asked to complete a test of general intellectual ability and self-rating of social competence as well as tasks from the Skuse Schedules for the Assessment of Social Intelligence.

RESULTS

Young offenders were poor at recognizing the facial expression of anger, regardless of intellectual ability. They could not accurately identify the direction of another's eye gaze. Their performance on theory of mind tasks, however, was unimpaired.

CONCLUSION

These preliminary findings imply selective impairment in the cognitive appraisal of threat, which may contribute to social maladjustment. Further such study of social cognition among young offenders is indicated.

Ätiologie und Verlauf kindlichen dissozialen Verhaltens - Risikofaktoren für die Entwicklung einer antisozialen Persönlichkeitsstörung

Zusammenfassung: Gegenstand: Störungen des Sozialverhaltens gehören zu den häufigsten Erkrankungen in unserem Fachgebiet. Methode: Die an der Entstehung von Störungen des Sozialverhaltens wesentlich beteiligten biologischen und psychosozialen Faktoren sowie deren Interaktion werden in dieser Übersichtsarbeit dargestellt. Dabei wird speziell auf Veränderungen der autonomen Reagibilität eingegangen. Ergebnis: Bei den unterschiedlichen Entwicklungspfaden hin zu einer antisozialen Persönlichkeitsstörung kommt frühen Formen von Störungen des Sozialverhaltens und dem psychopathischen Subtyp eine besondere Aussagekraft zu. Schlussfolgerung: Es wird die Bedeutung einer frühzeitigen Förderung gefährdeter Kinder zur Vermeidung einer dissozialen Entwicklung herausgestellt.