ERPs on a continuous performance task and self-reported psychopathic traits: P3 and CNV augmentation are associated with Fearless Dominance

Psychopathic traits, inhibition, and positive and negative emotion: Results from an emotional Go/No-Go task

Difficulty stopping unwanted or inappropriate actions (i.e., inhibitory control) is implicated in antisocial behaviors, which are common in people high in psychopathic traits. Recent research indicates that, for those with antisocial personality, inhibitory control is impaired under negative emotional contexts; however, it is unclear whether this impairment extends to persons with psychopathic traits and to impairments under positive emotional contexts. Identifying some of these distinctions can point to therapeutics that target negative emotion specifically or emotion dysregulation broadly. We sought to identify unique relationships between distinct facets of psychopathy and inhibitory control in the context of positive, negative, and neutral stimuli. Using a community sample (N = 117), event-related potentials were recorded during an emotional-linguistic Go/No-Go task. Results indicated distinct cognition-emotion relationships for each psychopathy facet. Higher interpersonal facet scores related to reciprocal interference between cognition and emotion. Higher callous affect facet scores related to reduced inhibitory and emotional processing, except when stimuli were most engaging (emotional No-Go trials). Higher erratic lifestyle facet scores related to increased effort required to process both emotion and inhibition cues. Finally, higher antisocial facet scores related to poorer behavioral inhibition overall. This research challenges the theoretical accounts of psychopathy focused on specific deficits in negative emotion, such as fearlessness, while offering some support for theories related to attentional dysfunction. Results also highlight the importance of facet-level theorizing, as results varied by facet. This study may inform efforts to reduce disinhibited behaviors, particularly in emotional contexts, among those high in certain psychopathic traits.

Psychopathic traits associated with abnormal hemodynamic activity in salience and default mode networks during auditory oddball task

Psychopathy is a personality disorder accompanied by abnormalities in emotional processing and attention. Recent theoretical applications of network-based models of cognition have been used to explain the diverse range of abnormalities apparent in psychopathy. Still, the physiological basis for these abnormalities is not well understood. A significant body of work has examined psychopathy-related abnormalities in simple attention-based tasks, but these studies have largely been performed using electrocortical measures, such as event-related potentials (ERPs), and they often have been carried out among individuals with low levels of psychopathic traits. In this study, we examined neural activity during an auditory oddball task using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a simple auditory target detection (oddball) task among 168 incarcerated adult males, with psychopathic traits assessed via the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Event-related contrasts demonstrated that the largest psychopathy-related effects were apparent between the frequent standard stimulus condition and a task-off, implicit baseline. Negative correlations with interpersonal-affective dimensions (Factor 1) of the PCL-R were apparent in regions comprising default mode and salience networks. These findings support models of psychopathy describing impaired integration across functional networks. They additionally corroborate reports which have implicated failures of efficient transition between default mode and task-positive networks. Finally, they demonstrate a neurophysiological basis for abnormal mobilization of attention and reduced engagement with stimuli that have little motivational significance among those with high psychopathic traits.

Dissociable Effects of Psychopathic Traits on Executive Functioning: Insights From the Triarchic Model

The relationship between executive functioning and psychopathy lacks consistent findings. The heterogeneity of the psychopathic personality structure may contribute to the mixed data that emerged from clinical-categorical approaches. Considering the link between antisocial behavior and executive dysfunction from the perspective of the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy, it is suggested that executive impairments in psychopathy are specifically explained by meanness and disinhibition traits, reflecting externalizing vulnerability. In turn, boldness is conceptualized as an adaptive trait. The current study assessed updating (N-back), inhibition (Stroop), and shifting (Trail Making Test) in a forensic (n = 56) and non-forensic sample (n = 48) that completed the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. A positive association between boldness and inhibition was found, while meanness accounted for the lack of inhibitory control. In addition, disinhibition explained updating dysfunction. These findings provide empirical evidence for dissociable effects of psychopathic traits on executive functioning, in light of the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy.

Personality correlates of individual differences in the recruitment of cognitive mechanisms when rewards are at stake

Individuals differ greatly in their sensitivity to rewards and punishments. In the extreme, these differences are implicated in a range of psychiatric disorders from addiction to depression. However, it is unclear how these differences influence the recruitment of attention, working memory, and long-term memory when responding to potential rewards. Here, we used a rewarded memory-guided visual search task and ERPs to examine the influence of individual differences in self-reported reward/punishment sensitivity, as measured by the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)/Behavioral Activation System (BAS) scales, on the recruitment of cognitive mechanisms in conditions of potential reward. Select subscales of the BAS, including the fun seeking and reward responsiveness scales, showed unique relationships with context updating to reward cues and working memory maintenance of potentially rewarded stimuli. In contrast, BIS scores showed unique relationships with deployment of attention at different points in the task. These results suggest that sensitivity to rewards (i.e., BAS) and to punishment (i.e., BIS) may play an important role in the recruitment of specific and distinct cognitive mechanisms in conditions of potential rewards.

Are individuals with higher psychopathic traits better learners at lying? Behavioural and neural evidence

High psychopathy is characterized by untruthfulness and manipulativeness. However, existing evidence on higher propensity or capacity to lie among non-incarcerated high-psychopathic individuals is equivocal. Of particular importance, no research has investigated whether greater psychopathic tendency is associated with better 'trainability' of lying. An understanding of whether the neurobehavioral processes of lying are modifiable through practice offers significant theoretical and practical implications. By employing a longitudinal design involving university students with varying degrees of psychopathic traits, we successfully demonstrate that the performance speed of lying about face familiarity significantly improved following two sessions of practice, which occurred only among those with higher, but not lower, levels of psychopathic traits. Furthermore, this behavioural improvement associated with higher psychopathic tendency was predicted by a reduction in lying-related neural signals and by functional connectivity changes in the frontoparietal and cerebellum networks. Our findings provide novel and pivotal evidence suggesting that psychopathic traits are the key modulating factors of the plasticity of both behavioural and neural processes underpinning lying. These findings broadly support conceptualization of high-functioning individuals with higher psychopathic traits as having preserved, or arguably superior, functioning in neural networks implicated in cognitive executive processing, but deficiencies in affective neural processes, from a neuroplasticity perspective.

Processing expected and unexpected uncertainty is modulated by fearless-dominance personality traits - An exploratory ERP study on feedback processing

Expectancy and certainty regarding an outcome are important factors during performance monitoring. However, the separate contributions of expected and unexpected uncertainty on different measures of performance monitoring, including feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300 components, are not well established. The current study investigated their relationship to fearless-dominance, a personality construct described by high social potency and low anxiety. Accurately predicting environmental outcomes in certain and uncertain situations might be a prerequisite of social potency, therefore it may be associated with increased performance monitoring and its ERP correlates. Consequently, expected-uncertain and unexpected-uncertain feedback (by violating previously learned certain and expected feedback) was introduced in addition to expected-certain feedback in healthy individuals during a probabilistic gambling task. In both FRN and P300 components, difference waves were more pronounced for unexpected-uncertain and expected-uncertain compared to expected-certain feedback. Moreover, more fearless-dominant individuals showed diminished feedback processing specifically in expected-uncertain trials, but concurrently enhanced attentional processing in expected-certain trials. These findings indicate adaptive and situation-appropriate utilization of performance monitoring resources in individuals with more pronounced fearless-dominance personality traits. The results indicate that a precise differentiation of expected and unexpected uncertainty in fearless-dominant individuals is mandatory in order to better understand the underlying personality construct and related behavior.

Response inhibition in the parametric go/no-go task and its relation to impulsivity and subclinical psychopathy

The current study utilizes the parametric go/no-go task (PGNG), a task that examines changes in inhibitory performance as executive function load increases, to examine the link between psychopathic traits, impulsivity, and response inhibition in a cohort of healthy participants. The results show that as executive function load increased, inhibitory ability decreased. High scores on the Cognitive Complexity subscale of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) predict poor inhibitory ability in the PGNG. Similarly, high scores on the Psychopathy Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) Blame Externalization subscale predict response inhibition deficits in the PGNG, which loads more on the executive functions than the standard go/no-go task. The remaining BIS-11 as well as PPI-R subscales did not interact with inhibitory performance in the PGNG highlighting the specificity of associations between aspects of personality and impulsivity with inhibitory performance as cognitive load is increased. These data point towards the sensitivity of the PGNG in studying response inhibition in the context of highly impulsive populations and its utility as a measure of impulsivity.

Psychopathy, attention, and oddball target detection: New insights from PCL-R facet scores

Psychopathy is a disorder accompanied by cognitive deficits including abnormalities in attention. Prior studies examining cognitive features of psychopaths using ERPs have produced some inconsistent results. We examined psychopathy-related differences in ERPs during an auditory oddball task in a sample of incarcerated adult males. We extend previous work by deriving ERPs with principal component analysis (PCA) and relate these to the four facets of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R). Features of psychopathy were associated with increased target N1 amplitude (facets 1, 4), decreased target P3 amplitude (facet 1), and reduced slow wave amplitude for frequent standard stimuli (facets 1, 3, 4). We conclude that employing PCA and examining PCL-R facets improve sensitivity and help clarify previously reported associations. Furthermore, attenuated slow wave during standards may be a novel marker for psychopaths' abnormalities in attention.

Mapping the association of global executive functioning onto diverse measures of psychopathic traits

Psychopathic individuals display a callous-coldhearted approach to interpersonal and affective situations and engage in impulsive and antisocial behaviors. Despite early conceptualizations suggesting that psychopathy is related to enhanced cognitive functioning, research examining executive functioning (EF) in psychopathy has yielded few such findings. It is possible that some psychopathic trait dimensions are more related to EF than others. Research using a 2-factor or 4-facet model of psychopathy highlights some dimension-specific differences in EF, but this research is limited in scope. Another complicating factor in teasing apart the EF-psychopathy relationship is the tendency to use different psychopathy assessments for incarcerated versus community samples. In this study, an EF battery and multiple measures of psychopathic dimensions were administered to a sample of male prisoners (N = 377). Results indicate that using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the independent effect of Factor 2 was related to worse EF, but neither the independent effect of Factor 1 nor the unique variance of the Factors (1 or 2) were related to EF. Using a 4-facet model, the independent effects of Facet2 (Affect) and Facet4 (Antisocial) were related to worse EF, but when examining the unique effects, only Facet2 remained significant. Finally, the questionnaire-based measure, Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire-Brief, of Fearless Dominance was related to better EF performance, whereas PCL-R Factor 1 was unrelated to EF. Overall, the results reveal the complex relationship among EF and behaviors characteristic of psychopathy-related dimensions. Moreover, they demonstrate the interpersonal and affective traits measured by these distinct assessments are differentially related to EF.

Response monitoring and adjustment: differential relations with psychopathic traits

Studies on the relation between psychopathy and cognitive functioning often show mixed results, partially because different factors of psychopathy have not been considered fully. Based on previous research, we predicted divergent results based on a 2-factor model of psychopathy (interpersonal-affective traits and impulsive-antisocial traits). Specifically, we predicted that the unique variance of interpersonal-affective traits would be related to increased monitoring (i.e., error-related negativity) and adjusting to errors (i.e., posterror slowing), whereas impulsive-antisocial traits would be related to reductions in these processes. Three studies using a diverse selection of assessment tools, samples, and methods are presented to identify response monitoring correlates of the 2 main factors of psychopathy. In Studies 1 (undergraduates), 2 (adolescents), and 3 (offenders), interpersonal-affective traits were related to increased adjustment following errors and, in Study 3, to enhanced monitoring of errors. Impulsive-antisocial traits were not consistently related to error adjustment across the studies, although these traits were related to a deficient monitoring of errors in Study 3. The results may help explain previous mixed findings and advance implications for etiological models of psychopathy.

No clear evidence for a positive association between the interpersonal-affective aspects of psychopathy and executive functioning

Common psychopathy rating instruments distinguish between an interpersonal-affective and an antisocial dimension. The suggestion that the interpersonal-affective dimension, often considered to be the core feature of psychopathy, is positively associated with executive functioning is occasionally made in the literature, without reporting objective empirical data. The primary aim of the present paper was to search for empirical studies reporting relevant data, focussing on four aspects of 'cold' executive functioning: inhibition, attentional shifting, working memory, and planning. Eleven published articles were identified, reporting data of 721 individuals from incarcerated and non-incarcerated, male and female, and adult and non-adult samples. Using a heterogeneous set of tests and dependent measures across studies, the inhibition and attentional shifting components were assessed in eight and five studies, respectively; the working memory and planning components each in two studies. A small majority of the studies found positive associations with the different executive functions, although the associations were mostly non-significant. Given the scarcity of studies and the use of heterogeneous populations, tests and statistical analyses, no robust conclusions can be drawn at this stage. Therefore, caution is needed when claiming a positive association between the interpersonal-affective features of psychopathy and executive functioning. Clearly more research is needed to further validate and specify the suggested association.

Fearless Dominance and reduced feedback-related negativity amplitudes in a time-estimation task - further neuroscientific evidence for dual-process models of psychopathy

Dual-process models of psychopathy postulate two etiologically relevant processes. Their involvement in feedback processing and its neural correlates has not been investigated so far. Multi-channel EEG was collected while healthy female volunteers performed a time-estimation task and received negative or positive feedback in form of signs or emotional faces. The affective-interpersonal factor Fearless Dominance, but not Self-Centered Impulsivity, was associated with reduced feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitudes. This neural dissociation extends previous findings on the impact of psychopathy on feedback processing and further highlights the importance of distinguishing psychopathic traits and extending previous (neuroscientific) models of psychopathy.

Differentiating psychopathy from general antisociality using the P3 as a psychophysiological correlate of attentional allocation

Recent studies have shown that while psychopathy and non-psychopathic antisociality overlap, they differ in the extent to which cognitive impairments are present. Specifically, psychopathy has been related to abnormal allocation of attention, a function that is traditionally believed to be indexed by event-related potentials (ERPs) of the P3-family. Previous research examining psychophysiological correlates of attention in psychopathic individuals has mainly focused on the parietally distributed P3b component to rare targets. In contrast, very little is known about the frontocentral P3a to infrequent novel events in psychopathy. Thus, findings on the P3 components in psychopathy are inconclusive, while results in non-psychopathic antisocial populations are clearer and point toward an inverse relationship between antisociality and P3 amplitudes. The present study adds to extant literature on the P3a and P3b in psychopathy by investigating component amplitudes in psychopathic offenders (N = 20), matched non-psychopathic offenders (N = 23) and healthy controls (N = 16). Also, it was assessed how well each offender group was able to differentially process rare novel and target events. The offender groups showed general amplitude reductions compared to healthy controls, but did not differ mutually on overall P3a/P3b amplitudes. However, the psychopathic group still exhibited normal neurophysiological differentiation when allocating attention to rare novel and target events, unlike the non-psychopathic sample. The results highlight differences between psychopathic and non-psychopathic offenders regarding the integrity of the neurocognitive processes driving attentional allocation, as well as the usefulness of alternative psychophysiological measures in differentiating psychopathy from general antisociality.