Psychopathy and the mirror neuron system: preliminary findings from a non-psychiatric sample

The impact of acute violent videogame exposure on neurocognitive markers of empathic concern

Research examining the purported association between violent gaming and aggression remains controversial due to concerns related to methodology, unclear neurocognitive mechanisms, and the failure to adequately consider the role of individual differences in susceptibility. To help address these concerns, we used fMRI and an emotional empathy task to examine whether acute and cumulative violent gaming exposure were associated with abnormalities in emotional empathy as a function of trait-empathy. Emotional empathy was targeted given its involvement in regulating not only aggression, but also other important social functions such as compassion and prosocial behaviour. We hypothesized that violent gaming exposure increases the risk of aberrant social behaviour by altering the aversive value of distress cues. Contrary to expectations, neither behavioural ratings nor empathy-related brain activity varied as a function of violent gaming exposure. Notably, however, activation patterns in somatosensory and motor cortices reflected an interaction between violent gaming exposure and trait empathy. Thus, our results are inconsistent with a straightforward relationship between violent gaming exposure and reduced empathy. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of considering both individual differences in susceptibility and other aspects of cognition related to social functioning to best inform public concern regarding safe gaming practices.

Social exclusion evokes different psychophysiological responses in individuals high on the psychopathy facets fearless dominance and self-centered impulsivity

Individuals with psychopathic personality traits are generally thought to have difficulties in processing and experiencing emotions. These difficulties could also translate to emotionally charged social situations such as social exclusion. Being socially excluded is often experienced as stressful and unpleasant, potentially even leading to selfish or aggressive behavior-both of which are linked to certain aspects of psychopathy. The current study investigated self-report and physiological responses to social exclusion in the cyberball paradigm in a carefully selected community sample of individuals either scoring high on primary (N = 24) or secondary psychopathy traits (N = 17). Across the sample, the cyberball paradigm decreased experiences of joy and approach motivation, increased subjective anger reports, and induced changes in heart rate. In contrast, individuals scoring high on secondary psychopathy traits (Self-Centered Impulsivity group) displayed stronger physiological reactivity during a habituation phase of prolonged social exclusion than individuals scoring high on primary psychopathy traits (Fearless Dominance group), indexed by changes in skin conductance level. Moreover, a potential mismatch between self-reported and physiological arousal seemed to be only observable in individuals with high secondary psychopathy traits. Overall, the current results suggest diverging patterns of emotional processing and regulation in a social exclusion situation when comparing well-functioning individuals with varying psychopathy traits. It seemed as if individuals high on primary psychopathy traits were insensitive to contextual social cues, while individuals high on secondary psychopathy traits were more affected by the potentially threatening social situation. Cautiously transferring the current findings to forensic samples, they support the idea of moving from a behavioral understanding of the psychopathy construct to a more clinical picture with distinct cognitive and emotional processing patterns in individuals high on either primary or secondary psychopathy traits.

Acetaminophen changes Mu rhythm power related to pain empathy

Empathy is an intricate ability that entails the subjective feeling and understanding of emotions someone else may be experiencing. Acetaminophen, the active ingredient found in Tylenol, is among the most common pain medications consumed. There is new evidence, however, that suggests this common analgesic may also dampen empathic processes. However, no previous study has investigated the effect acetaminophen may have on pain empathy or mu power during a pain empathy task. Therefore, participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental (acetaminophen) or control (sugar) group in a double-blinded experimental research design aimed to measure mu power (using EEG) and behavioral responses to painful and non-painful images. Participants in the experimental group were administered 1000 mg of acetaminophen, and it was verified that participants were unaware which group they were assigned. We found that mu suppression was greater in the acetaminophen group, which was strongest at electrode C3. Additionally, mu power differences between painful and non-painful images were related to trait empathy, and mu power during the painful images were positively correlated with empathy scores. Results from this study suggest that in addition to reducing physical pain, acetaminophen may also change the brain response when perceiving others in pain. The implications of these findings could possibly lead to changes in how we prescribe and administer this common drug.

Antisocial and impulsive personality traits are linked to individual differences in somatosensory maps of emotion

Somatosensory experience is an important component of emotion, playing a prominent role in many traditional emotion theories. Nonetheless, and despite the extensive literature on the influence of individual differences in emotional processing, the relation between personality traits and emotion-related somatosensation has received little attention. Here, we addressed this question in a large sample of healthy individuals through the "bodily maps of emotion" behavioural paradigm, in which participants indicated the location and extent of their body sensations for the 6 basic and 4 additional social emotions (contempt, envy, pride, shame). We found that emotional somatosensation in specific body areas, including the heart, the stomach, and the head, was related to specific personality factors, particularly antisocial attitudes and impulsivity. Moreover, the similarity of individual participants' maps to the group-average was likewise negatively correlated with antisocial tendencies. Overall, our results suggest that differences in individuals' sensitivity to somatosensation from different body areas, as well as the typicality of their topographical patterns, may partly underlie variation in higher-order social and affective traits.

Dissociable effects of acute versus cumulative violent video game exposure on the action simulation circuit in university students

There is an ongoing debate as to whether violent video game exposure (VGE) has a negative impact on social functioning. This debate continues in part because of methodological concerns and the paucity of identifiable neurocognitive mechanisms. Also, little attention has been given to how specific personality characteristics may influence susceptibility to the purported effects. Using a combined experimental and cross-sectional approach, we examined the impact of VGE on action simulation as a function of trait coldheartedness in a sample of university students. Healthy adults played a violent or nonviolent version of Grand Theft Auto V before completing an fMRI measure of action simulation circuit (ASC) activity. Simulation-related activity was not significantly different between groups; however, greater overall activation was observed in left inferior frontal gyrus for those in the violent condition. Contrary to predictions, no evidence was observed that trait coldheartedness significantly interacts with violent gaming to influence ASC activation. However, prior cumulative VGE was negatively correlated with simulation-related activity in a subsection of the ASC. This study highlights a potential dissociation between the effects of acute versus cumulative violent gaming and may challenge assumptions that the directionality of effects for cross-sectional associations always mirror those of acute exposure.

Reading and reacting to faces, the effect of facial mimicry in improving facial emotion recognition in individuals with antisocial behavior and psychopathic traits

Individuals with antisocial behavior and psychopathic traits are characterized by deficits in processing facial expressions, which results in poor social adaptation and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships. However, it is not clear how individuals with varying levels of these traits differ in this emotional impairment and if these deficits are due to correctly identifying or reacting appropriately to facial expressions. The aim of the study was to examine how individuals with these traits recognized and responded to affective facial expressions by using FaceReader software (which analyses footage of faces) across different experimental conditions (imitation, suppression, and control). Imitating facial expressions was introduced to examine whether it could direct participants’ attention to the facial cues and improve participants’ performance on the facial task. A total of 643 individuals from the community were pre-screened and a sample (N = 107; M age = 21.08, SD = 1.55), differentiated on levels of antisocial personality disorder (APD) symptoms and psychopathic (PSY) traits, who were selected based on extreme scores (high/low), were invited to participate in the study. Individuals with higher levels of APD symptoms and PSY traits (APD + PSY) expressed more anger than other groups, while those in the APD-only group expressed more sadness, compared to other groups. Overall, participants were compliant in following the instructions to imitate facial expressions. However, only the group with predominantly APD symptoms and the group with combined symptoms (APD + PSY) showed improvement in their accuracy ratings specifically when instructed to imitate facial expressions, compared to when no instructions were provided. The study offers a promising direction for targeting deficits in facial emotion recognition, suggesting that the deficits found in individuals with behavioral problems (with and without psychopathic traits) can be improved by asking them to imitate facial expressions.

Increasing self-other bodily overlap increases sensorimotor resonance to others' pain

Empathy for another person’s pain and feeling pain oneself seem to be accompanied by similar or shared neural responses. Such shared responses could be achieved by mapping the bodily states of others onto our own bodily representations. We investigated whether sensorimotor neural responses to the pain of others are increased when experimentally reducing perceived bodily distinction between the self and the other. Healthy adult participants watched video clips of the hands of ethnic ingroup or outgroup members being painfully penetrated by a needle syringe or touched by a cotton swab. Manipulating the video presentation to create a visuospatial overlap between the observer’s and the target’s hand increased the perceived bodily self-attribution of the target’s hand. For both ingroup and outgroup targets, this resulted in increased neural responses to the painful injections (compared with nonpainful contacts), as indexed by desynchronizations of central mu and beta scalp rhythms recorded using electroencephalography. Furthermore, these empathy-related neural activations were stronger in participants who reported stronger bodily self-attribution of the other person’s hand. Our findings provide further evidence that empathy for pain engages sensorimotor resonance mechanisms. They also indicate that reducing bodily self-other distinction may increase such resonance for ingroup as well as outgroup targets.

To move or not to move: motor cortical output is enhanced during pain observation regardless of motor preparation state

Previous transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies have reported a decrease in motor cortical output during pain observation. In contrast, recent behavioral studies have shown that response times are faster after pain observation. This suggests that there is a mismatch between motor activity "during" versus "after" pain observation. We propose that these opposing effects of pain observation on motor activity may be explained by task constraints, as participants in TMS studies are instructed to keep still and relax their hands, whereas participants in behavioral studies maintain a state of readiness to respond. Task and methodological differences make it difficult to compare the results from TMS and behavioral paradigms examining the motor consequences of pain observation. As such, the aim of the current study is to directly test whether task instructions affect motor activity in TMS and behavioral measures of motor activity in the context of pain observation, within a single experiment. Participants watched videos of hands in painful versus nonpainful scenarios while TMS-induced motor evoked potentials were recorded. In the "active" block, participants responded to a cue that appeared immediately after each video; in the "passive" block, they relaxed their hand. Contrary to expectations, participants showed enhanced motor cortical output during pain observation (vs. no-pain) in "both" blocks. We discuss these results in relation to the wider literature on the social neuroscience of empathy.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The current study provides novel results showing an increase motor cortical output, measured via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-induced motor evoked potentials (MEPs), during empathic pain observation regardless of motor preparation state. Interestingly, this finding runs counter to the empathy for pain literature, which often finds a decrease in motor cortical output during empathic pain observation. We discuss potential explanations for this discrepancy and relate these results to the wider empathy for pain literature.

The interactive effect of empathy and motor cortex stimulation on hand gesture comprehension

Previous research has demonstrated that the Action-Observation Network (AON) is involved in both emotional-embodiment (empathy) and action-embodiment mechanisms. In the current study, we hypothesized that interfering with the AON will impair action recognition and that this impairment will be modulated by empathy levels. Fifty-two participants conducted a semantic decision task of hand gesture recognition, while we interfered with the AON by applying active (n = 26) or sham (n = 26) transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to the hand area of the primary motor cortex. We found that interfering with the AON impaired the performance of participants with high empathy levels and enhanced the performance of participants with low empathy. This finding suggests that the embodiment module may be flexible, and that it can be enhanced in individuals with low empathy by simple manipulation of motor activation.

The Role of Sensorimotor Processes in Pain Empathy

Pain is a salient, aversive sensation which motivates avoidance, but also has a strong social signaling function. Numerous studies have shown that regions of the nervous system active in association with first-hand pain are also active in response to the pain of others. When witnessing somatic pain, such as seeing bodies in painful situations, significant activations occur not only in areas related to the processing of negative emotions, but also in neuronal structures engaged in somatosensation and the control of skeletal muscles. These empathy-related sensorimotor activations are selectively reviewed in this article, with a focus on studies using electrophysiological methods and paradigms investigating responses to somatic pain. Convergent evidence from these studies shows that these activations (1) occur at multiple levels of the nervous system, from the spinal cord up to the cerebral cortex, (2) are best conceptualized as activations of a defensive system, in line with the role of pain to protect body from injury, and (3) contribute to establishing a matching of psychological states between the sufferer and the observer, which ultimately supports empathic understanding and motivate prosocial action. Future research should thus focus on how these sensorimotor responses are related to higher-order empathic responses, including affective sharing and emotion regulation, and how this motivates approach-related prosocial behaviors aimed at alleviating the pain and suffering of others.

Positive self-perception and corticospinal excitability: Recalling positive behavior expands peripersonal space boundaries

Converging evidence suggests that peripersonal space has dynamic properties, that can be influenced by motor and cognitive factors. Here, we investigated whether changes in self-perception may impact upon peripersonal representation. Specifically, employing non-invasive brain stimulation, we tested whether corticospinal excitability elicited by objects placed in the vertical peripersonal vs extrapersonal space can be influenced by changes in self-perception after recalling a personal experience inducing the feeling of high power (vs. positivity vs. low power). In a preliminary study (Study 1, N = 39) participants were presented with an object, whose position was manipulated in the horizontal vs vertical space. We assessed corticospinal excitability by measuring Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs) using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with Electromyography co-registration (TMS-EMG). In the horizontal condition, we replicated the well-known motor facilitation induced by objects falling in the peri vs extrapersonal space, while in the vertical dimension MEPs were higher in the extrapersonal space. In the main experiment (Study 2), participants (N = 55) were randomly assigned to feel high power, low power, or a general positive emotion and were asked to observe the same object positioned either in the peripersonal or in the extrapersonal vertical space. Results showed that in the low power condition MEPs were higher in the extrapersonal vs peripersonal, as in Study 1, while in high power and positive conditions MEPs were not influenced by distance. Taken together, our findings suggest a dissociable pattern of motor facilitation underlying vertical vs horizontal space perception and, crucially, that changes in self-perception can influence such a representation.

Activation of Mirror Neuron Regions Is Altered in Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)-Neurophysiological Evidence Using an Action Observation Paradigm

Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have difficulty performing and learning motor skills. Automatic activation of the mirror neuron system (MNS) during action observation and its coupling to the motor output system are important neurophysiological processes that underpin observational motor learning. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that MNS function is disrupted in children with DCD by using sensitive electroencephalography (EEG)-based measures of MNS activation during action observation. Specifically, we predicted reduced mu-suppression and coherence in DCD compared with typically developing children. Neural activation of the motor network was measured by EEG, specifically event-related desynchronization (ERD) of mu rhythms and fronto-parietal coherence. Children (15 DCD/15 controls) were tested under two task conditions: observational learning (imitation of an observed action) and detection (report a deviant movement after observation). EEG-metrics were compared between groups using linear mixed-effects models. As predicted, children with DCD showed lower levels of mu suppression and reduced modulation of coherence during the observational learning task compared with their non-DCD peers. Notably, mu suppression was reduced in DCD over the entire imitation task (repetitions, and both observation and pause intervals). Action observation can be used for the acquisition of new motor skills. This form of learning entails the transposition of the observed action to the existing internal representations of the observer’s own motor system. The present neurophysiological results suggest that this process of learning is impaired in children with DCD. The results are discussed in relation to current hypotheses on mechanisms of DCD.

From Neurons to Social Beings: Short Review of the Mirror Neuron System Research and Its Socio-Psychological and Psychiatric Implications

The mirror neuron system (MNS) is a brain network activated when we move our body parts and when we observe the actions of other agent. Since the mirror neuron’s discovery in research on monkeys, several studies have examined its network and properties in both animals and humans. This review discusses MNS studies of animals and human MNS studies related to high-order social cognitions such as emotion and empathy, as well as relations between MNS dysfunction and mental disorders. Finally, these evidences are understood from an evolutionary perspective.

Childhood emotional invalidation and right hemispheric mu suppression during a pain empathy task: An EEG study

Empathy is a critical aspect of social behavior, and impairment in empathic processing is linked to hindered social interactions and several disorders. Despite much interest in this topic, our understanding of the developmental and neural involvement for empathic processing is limited. Recent evidence suggests the Mirror Neuron System (MNS) may play a role in this behavior, and that mu rhythm suppression found over the sensorimotor cortices may be a proxy for the MNS. Therefore, we aimed to measure mu rhythm oscillations in response to empathic processing during observation of painful action-based situations using electroencephalogram (EEG). Our second goal was to examine how perceived parental emotional invalidation (EI) during childhood may relate to empathy and influence mu suppression. Our results showed that mu rhythm suppression was strongest over the right hemisphere. EI had a significant influence on this suppression between painful and non-painful images, and was negatively correlated with behavioral measures of empathy. Our findings suggest that perceived childhood EI may decrease empathizing abilities and influence neural responses to the painful experiences of others. Implications from this study could entail clinical intervention targeted at emotional invalidation to foster the healthy development of empathy.

The Effects of Empathy, Emotional Intelligence and Psychopathy on Interpersonal Interactions

The current study investigated the relationships between empathy (emotional and cognitive), emotional intelligence, psychopathy, emotional contagion, and non-conscious behavioural mimicry (smiles and hand scratches), using self-report scales and a script-based interview session exhibiting nine non-verbal gestures, on a student sample. Past findings suggest a deficit of emotional but not cognitive empathy in psychopaths. Empirical research on non-conscious behavioural mimicry in psychopathy with reference to emotional intelligence is somewhat scarce; however it was proposed that individuals high in psychopathic traits would show reduced emotional mimicry based on the relation of empathy to mimicry. The study was quasi-experimental, involving individual assessment of 51 participants. Results suggest decreased emotional empathy at high levels of psychopathy and show that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between psychopathy and non-conscious mimicry (smiles per minute). Social competence might be more predictive of effects of psychopathy on non-conscious mimicry.

Motor Empathy in Individuals With Psychopathic Traits: A Preliminary Study

The present laboratory study examined motor empathy in male and female individuals, who were either high or low on psychopathic traits, drawn from a nonclinical university population. Past findings suggest that psychopathic individuals are impaired in affective empathy, but findings on impairments in cognitive empathy are mixed. Research on motor empathy in psychopathy is scarce. The authors hypothesized that individuals high on psychopathic traits would have deficient motor empathy (similar to affective empathy) related to valenced emotion stimuli because of the automatic nature of motor empathy. Potential participants completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R). Participants were chosen for the study on the basis of their PPI-R scores. All participants viewed photographic images drawn from a well-established set of stimuli (the International Affective Picture System) and were video recorded while doing so. Intensity for eight emotions (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, sad, joy, surprise, and neutral) in participants' facial expressions was measured objectively using an automated program, the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox. Individuals high on psychopathic traits as compared with low PPI-R scorers displayed significantly less emotional congruence when viewing negative images. The study results suggest that deficits in motor empathy related to psychopathic trait levels are relatively restricted to negative emotions.

Empathy or Ownership? Evidence from Corticospinal Excitability Modulation during Pain Observation

Recent studies show that motor responses similar to those present in one's own pain (freezing effect) occur as a result of observation of pain in others. This finding has been interpreted as the physiological basis of empathy. Alternatively, it can represent the physiological counterpart of an embodiment phenomenon related to the sense of body ownership. We compared the empathy and the ownership hypotheses by manipulating the perspective of the observed hand model receiving pain so that it could be a first-person perspective, the one in which embodiment occurs, or a third-person perspective, the one in which we usually perceive the others. Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) by TMS over M1 were recorded from first dorsal interosseous muscle, whereas participants observed video clips showing (a) a needle penetrating or (b) a Q-tip touching a hand model, presented either in first-person or in third-person perspective. We found that a pain-specific inhibition of MEP amplitude (a significantly greater MEP reduction in the "pain" compared with the "touch" conditions) only pertains to the first-person perspective, and it is related to the strength of the self-reported embodiment. We interpreted this corticospinal modulation according to an "affective" conception of body ownership, suggesting that the body I feel as my own is the body I care more about.

Reliability and Construct Validity of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised in a Swedish Non-Criminal Sample - A Multimethod Approach including Psychophysiological Correlates of Empathy for Pain

Cross-cultural investigation of psychopathy measures is important for clarifying the nomological network surrounding the psychopathy construct. The Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) is one of the most extensively researched self-report measures of psychopathic traits in adults. To date however, it has been examined primarily in North American criminal or student samples. To address this gap in the literature, we examined PPI-R's reliability, construct validity and factor structure in non-criminal individuals (N = 227) in Sweden, using a multimethod approach including psychophysiological correlates of empathy for pain. PPI-R construct validity was investigated in subgroups of participants by exploring its degree of overlap with (i) the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), (ii) self-rated empathy and behavioral and physiological responses in an experiment on empathy for pain, and (iii) additional self-report measures of alexithymia and trait anxiety. The PPI-R total score was significantly associated with PCL:SV total and factor scores. The PPI-R Coldheartedness scale demonstrated significant negative associations with all empathy subscales and with rated unpleasantness and skin conductance responses in the empathy experiment. The PPI-R higher order Self-Centered Impulsivity and Fearless Dominance dimensions were associated with trait anxiety in opposite directions (positively and negatively, respectively). Overall, the results demonstrated solid reliability (test-retest and internal consistency) and promising but somewhat mixed construct validity for the Swedish translation of the PPI-R.

Specific electrophysiological components disentangle affective sharing and empathic concern in psychopathy

Empathic impairment is one of the hallmarks of psychopathy, a personality dimension associated with poverty in affective reactions, lack of attachment to others, and a callous disregard for the feelings, rights, and welfare of others. Neuroscience research on the relation between empathy and psychopathy has predominately focused on the affective sharing and cognitive components of empathy in forensic populations, and much less on empathic concern. The current study used high-density electroencephalography in a community sample to examine the spatiotemporal neurodynamic responses when viewing people in physical distress under two subjective contexts: one evoking affective sharing, the other, empathic concern. Results indicate that early automatic (175-275 ms) and later controlled responses (LPP 400-1,000 ms) were differentially modulated by engagement in affective sharing or empathic concern. Importantly, the late event-related potentials (ERP) component was significantly impacted by dispositional empathy and psychopathy, but the early component was not. Individual differences in dispositional empathic concern directly predicted gamma coherence (25-40 Hz), whereas psychopathy was inversely modulatory. Interestingly, significant suppression in the mu/alpha band (8-13 Hz) when perceiving others in distress was positively associated with higher trait psychopathy, which argues against the assumption that sensorimotor resonance underpins empathy. Greater scores on trait psychopathy were inversely related to subjective ratings of both empathic concern and affective sharing. Overall, the study demonstrates that neural markers of affective sharing and empathic concern to the same cues of another's distress can be distinguished at an electrophysiological level, and that psychopathy alters later time-locked differentiations and spectral coherence associated with empathic concern.

Amygdala subnuclei connectivity in response to violence reveals unique influences of individual differences in psychopathic traits in a nonforensic sample

Atypical amygdala function and connectivity have reliably been associated with psychopathy. However, the amygdala is not a unitary structure. To examine how psychopathic traits in a nonforensic sample are linked to amygdala response to violence, this study used probabilistic tractography to classify amygdala subnuclei based on anatomical projections to and from amygdala subnuclei in a group of 43 male participants. The segmentation identified the basolateral complex (BLA; lateral, basal, and accessory basal subnuclei) and the central subnucleus (CE), which were used as seeds in a functional connectivity analysis to identify differences in neuronal coupling specific to observed violence. While a full amygdala seed showed significant connectivity only to right middle occipital gyrus, subnuclei seeds revealed unique connectivity patterns. BLA showed enhanced coupling with anterior cingulate and prefrontal regions, while CE showed increased connectivity with the brainstem, but reduced connectivity with superior parietal and precentral gyrus. Further, psychopathic personality factors were related to specific patterns of connectivity. Fearless Dominance scores on the psychopathic personality inventory predicted increased coupling between the BLA seed and sensory integration cortices, and increased connectivity between the CE seed and posterior insula. Conversely, Self-Centered Impulsivity scores were negatively correlated with coupling between BLA and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and Coldheartedness scores predicted increased functional connectivity between BLA and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Taken together, these findings demonstrate how subnuclei segmentations reveal important functional connectivity differences that are otherwise inaccessible. Such an approach yields a better understanding of amygdala dysfunction in psychopathy.

Frontal and striatal alterations associated with psychopathic traits in adolescents

Neuroimaging research has demonstrated a range of structural deficits in adults with psychopathy, but little is known about structural correlates of psychopathic tendencies in adolescents. Here we examined structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data obtained from 14-year-old adolescents (n=108) using tensor-based morphometry (TBM) to isolate global and localized differences in brain tissue volumes associated with psychopathic traits in this otherwise healthy developmental population. We found that greater levels of psychopathic traits were correlated with increased brain tissue volumes in the left putamen, left ansa peduncularis, right superiomedial prefrontal cortex, left inferior frontal cortex, right orbitofrontal cortex, and right medial temporal regions and reduced brain tissues volumes in the right middle frontal cortex, left superior parietal lobule, and left inferior parietal lobule. Post hoc analyses of parcellated regional volumes also showed putamen enlargements to correlate with increased psychopathic traits. Consistent with earlier studies, findings suggest poor decision-making and emotional dysregulation associated with psychopathy may be due, in part, to structural anomalies in frontal and temporal regions whereas striatal structural variations may contribute to sensation-seeking and reward-driven behavior in psychopathic individuals. Future studies will help clarify how disturbances in brain maturational processes might lead to the developmental trajectory from psychopathic tendencies in adolescents to adult psychopathy.

Personal involvement is related to increased search motivation and associated with activity in left BA44-a pilot study

Numerous studies explore consumer perception of brands in a more or less passive way. This may still be representative for many situations or decisions we make each day. Nevertheless, sometimes we often actively search for and use information to make informed and reasoned choices, thus implying a rational and thinking consumer. Researchers suggested describing this distinction as low relative to high involvement consumer behavior. Although the involvement concept has been widely used to explain consumer behavior, behavioral and neural correlates of this concept are poorly understood. The current study aims to describe a behavioral measure that is associated with high involvement, the length of search behavior. A second aim of this study was to explore brain activations associated with involvement by employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We presented participants information cues for different products and told them that they had to answer questions with respect to these products at the end of the experiment. Participants were free to stop the information search if they think they gathered enough information or to continue with collecting information. Behavioral results confirmed our hypothesis of a relationship between searching behavior and personal involvement by demonstrating that the length of search correlated significantly with the degree of personal involvement of the participants. fMRI data revealed that personal involvement was associated with activation in BA44. Since this brain region is known to be involved in semantic memory, the results of this pilot study suggest that high involvement consumer behavior may be linked to cognitive load and attention towards a product.

Feeling but not caring: empathic alteration in narcissistic men with high psychopathic traits

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by specific interpersonal-affective deficits and social deviance often marked by reduced empathy and decreased affective response to the suffering of others. However, recent findings in community samples suggest that the somatosensory resonance to other's pain measured with electroencephalography (EEG) is increased by psychopathic traits. This study aimed at comparing both the response to physical pain and the observation of pain being inflicted to another person in individuals with clinically significant psychopathic traits, namely patients with severe narcissistic personality disorder (NPD, n=11), and community controls (CC, n=13). The gating of somatosensory responses to a tactile steady-state stimulation (25 Hz) during the observation of pain-evoking and non-painful visual stimuli of hands was measured using EEG. Pain thresholds were assessed with a quantitative sensory testing (QST) battery. NPD compared with CC subjects showed similar thermal pain thresholds, but significantly higher pain pressure thresholds (PPT). Significantly greater somatosensory gating (SG) during the anticipation and the observation of pain in others was observed in NPD compared with CC subjects, but this difference was not associated with differences in self-pain perception. SG to pain observation was positively correlated with the Impulsivity-Egocentricity (IE) dimension of psychopathy. These findings demonstrated a stronger somatosensory resonance in the high psychopathic trait NPD group that suggests an increased somatic representation of observed pain despite lower dispositional empathy.

Reduced embodied simulation in psychopathy

OBJECTIVES

Psychopathy is characterized by severe deficits in emotion processing and empathy. These emotional deficits might not only affect the feeling of own emotions, but also the understanding of others' emotional and mental states. The present study aims on identifying the neurobiological correlates of social-cognitive related alterations in psychopathy.

METHODS

We applied a social-cognitive paradigm for the investigation of face processing, emotion recognition, and affective Theory of Mind (ToM) to 11 imprisoned psychopaths and 18 healthy controls. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure task-related brain activation.

RESULTS

While showing no overall behavioural deficit, psychopathy was associated with altered brain activation. Psychopaths had reduced fusiform activation related to face processing. Related to affective ToM, psychopaths had hypoactivation in amygdala, inferior prefrontal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus, areas associated with embodied simulation of emotions and intentions. Furthermore, psychopaths lacked connectivity between superior temporal sulcus and amygdala during affective ToM.

CONCLUSIONS

These results replicate findings of alterations in basal face processing in psychopathy. In addition, they provide evidence for reduced embodied simulation in psychopathy in concert with a lack of communication between motor areas and amygdala which might provide the neural substrate of reduced feeling with others during social cognition.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation reveals two functionally distinct stages of motor cortex involvement during perception of emotional body language

Studies indicate that perceiving emotional body language recruits fronto-parietal regions involved in action execution. However, the nature of such motor activation is unclear. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) we provide correlational and causative evidence of two distinct stages of motor cortex engagement during emotion perception. Participants observed pictures of body expressions and categorized them as happy, fearful or neutral while receiving TMS over the left or right motor cortex at 150 and 300 ms after picture onset. In the early phase (150 ms), we observed a reduction of excitability for happy and fearful emotional bodies that was specific to the right hemisphere and correlated with participants’ disposition to feel personal distress. This ‘orienting’ inhibitory response to emotional bodies was also paralleled by a general drop in categorization accuracy when stimulating the right but not the left motor cortex. Conversely, at 300 ms, greater excitability for negative, positive and neutral movements was found in both hemispheres. This later motor facilitation marginally correlated with participants’ tendency to assume the psychological perspectives of others and reflected simulation of the movement implied in the neutral and emotional body expressions. These findings highlight the motor system’s involvement during perception of emotional bodies. They suggest that fast orienting reactions to emotional cues—reflecting neural processing necessary for visual perception—occur before motor features of the observed emotional expression are simulated in the motor system and that distinct empathic dispositions influence these two neural motor phenomena. Implications for theories of embodied simulation are discussed.

The cognitive and neural correlates of psychopathy and especially callous–unemotional traits in youths: A systematic review of the evidence

It is unclear whether the concepts and findings of the underlying neurobiology of adult psychopathy apply to youths as well. If so, a life span approach to treatment should be taken. Because youths’ brains are still developing, interventions at an early age may be far more effective in the long run. The aim of this systematic review is to examine whether the neurocognitive and neurobiological factors that underlie juvenile psychopathy, and specifically callous–unemotional (CU) traits, are similar to those underlying adult psychopathy. The results show that youths with CU traits show lower levels of prosocial reasoning, lower emotional responsivity, and decreased harm avoidance. Brain imaging studies in youths with CU traits are still rare. Available studies suggest specific neural correlates, such as a reduced response of the amygdala and a weaker functional connectivity between the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings are largely in line with existing theories of adult psychopathy, such as the dual-hormone serotonergic hypothesis and the integrated emotions systems theory. We recommend that future studies investigate the role of oxytocin, invest in the study of neural mechanisms, and study the precursors, risk factors, and correlates of CU traits in early infancy and in longitudinal designs.

An fMRI study of affective perspective taking in individuals with psychopathy: imagining another in pain does not evoke empathy

While it is well established that individuals with psychopathy have a marked deficit in affective arousal, emotional empathy, and caring for the well-being of others, the extent to which perspective taking can elicit an emotional response has not yet been studied despite its potential application in rehabilitation. In healthy individuals, affective perspective taking has proven to be an effective means to elicit empathy and concern for others. To examine neural responses in individuals who vary in psychopathy during affective perspective taking, 121 incarcerated males, classified as high (n = 37; Hare psychopathy checklist-revised, PCL-R ≥ 30), intermediate (n = 44; PCL-R between 21 and 29), and low (n = 40; PCL-R ≤ 20) psychopaths, were scanned while viewing stimuli depicting bodily injuries and adopting an imagine-self and an imagine-other perspective. During the imagine-self perspective, participants with high psychopathy showed a typical response within the network involved in empathy for pain, including the anterior insula (aINS), anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), supplementary motor area (SMA), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), somatosensory cortex, and right amygdala. Conversely, during the imagine-other perspective, psychopaths exhibited an atypical pattern of brain activation and effective connectivity seeded in the anterior insula and amygdala with the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The response in the amygdala and insula was inversely correlated with PCL-R Factor 1 (interpersonal/affective) during the imagine-other perspective. In high psychopaths, scores on PCL-R Factor 1 predicted the neural response in ventral striatum when imagining others in pain. These patterns of brain activation and effective connectivity associated with differential perspective-taking provide a better understanding of empathy dysfunction in psychopathy, and have the potential to inform intervention programs for this complex clinical problem.

An fMRI study of affective perspective taking in individuals with psychopathy: imagining another in pain does not evoke empathy

While it is well established that individuals with psychopathy have a marked deficit in affective arousal, emotional empathy, and caring for the well-being of others, the extent to which perspective taking can elicit an emotional response has not yet been studied despite its potential application in rehabilitation. In healthy individuals, affective perspective taking has proven to be an effective means to elicit empathy and concern for others. To examine neural responses in individuals who vary in psychopathy during affective perspective taking, 121 incarcerated males, classified as high (n = 37; Hare psychopathy checklist-revised, PCL-R ≥ 30), intermediate (n = 44; PCL-R between 21 and 29), and low (n = 40; PCL-R ≤ 20) psychopaths, were scanned while viewing stimuli depicting bodily injuries and adopting an imagine-self and an imagine-other perspective. During the imagine-self perspective, participants with high psychopathy showed a typical response within the network involved in empathy for pain, including the anterior insula (aINS), anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), supplementary motor area (SMA), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), somatosensory cortex, and right amygdala. Conversely, during the imagine-other perspective, psychopaths exhibited an atypical pattern of brain activation and effective connectivity seeded in the anterior insula and amygdala with the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The response in the amygdala and insula was inversely correlated with PCL-R Factor 1 (interpersonal/affective) during the imagine-other perspective. In high psychopaths, scores on PCL-R Factor 1 predicted the neural response in ventral striatum when imagining others in pain. These patterns of brain activation and effective connectivity associated with differential perspective-taking provide a better understanding of empathy dysfunction in psychopathy, and have the potential to inform intervention programs for this complex clinical problem.

The social and personality neuroscience of empathy for pain and touch

First- and third-person experiences of bodily sensations, like pain and touch, recruit overlapping neural networks including sensorimotor, insular, and anterior cingulate cortices. Here we illustrate the peculiar role of these structures in coding the sensory and affective qualities of the observed bodily sensations. Subsequently we show that such neural activity is critically influenced by a range of social, emotional, cognitive factors, and importantly by inter-individual differences in the separate components of empathic traits. Finally we suggest some fundamental issues that social neuroscience has to address for providing a comprehensive knowledge of the behavioral, functional and anatomical brain correlates of empathy.

The modulation of somatosensory resonance by psychopathic traits and empathy

A large number of neuroimaging studies have shown neural overlaps between first-hand experiences of pain and the perception of pain in others. This shared neural representation of vicarious pain is thought to involve both affective and sensorimotor systems. A number of individual factors are thought to modulate the cerebral response to other's pain. The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of psychopathic traits on the relation between sensorimotor resonance to other's pain and self-reported empathy. Our group has previously shown that a steady-state response to non-painful stimulation is modulated by the observation of other people's bodily pain. This change in somatosensory response was interpreted as a form of somatosensory gating (SG). Here, using the same technique, SG was compared between two groups of 15 young adult males: one scoring very high on a self-reported measure of psychopathic traits [60.8 ± 4.98; Levenson's Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP)] and one scoring very low (42.7 ± 2.94). The results showed a significantly greater reduction of SG to pain observation for the high psychopathic traits group compared to the low psychopathic traits group. SG to pain observation was positively correlated with affective and interpersonal facet of psychopathy in the whole sample. The high psychopathic traits group also reported lower empathic concern (EC) scores than the low psychopathic traits group. Importantly, primary psychopathy, as assessed by the LSRP, mediated the relation between EC and SG to pain observation. Together, these results suggest that increase somatosensory resonance to other's pain is not exclusively explained by trait empathy and may be linked to other personality dimensions, such as psychopathic traits.

Mirror-like brain responses to observed touch and personality dimensions

The last years have shown a growing interest in research on the neural mechanisms for perceiving and understanding social interactions. Only very recently, a role for somatosensation in social perception has been suggested. Numerous studies reported vicarious responses in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) and other areas merely when seeing others being touched. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that these vicarious somatosensory responses can be linked with inter-individual differences in empathy. However, beyond empathy other personality traits have been shown to interact with social perception and behavior. Here we tested if personality traits according to the Five-Factor-Model interact with vicarious activation in somatosensory brain regions. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which subjects viewed video clips showing simple non-painful touch to a hand and a control condition including the same visual and motion parts. Results revealed vicarious somatosensory activation when viewing the touched hand, as expected. Vicarious activation in SI showed a trend for a positive correlation with the personality trait openness to experience. Moreover, mirror-like responses in the insula were strongly correlated with the personality trait conscientiousness, suggesting links to processes of self-control. We conclude that vicarious brain responses to seen touch seem to interact with personality traits.

Electroencephalogram evidence for the activation of human mirror neuron system during the observation of intransitive shadow and line drawing actions

Previous studies have demonstrated that hand shadows may activate the motor cortex associated with the mirror neuron system in human brain. However, there is no evidence of activity of the human mirror neuron system during the observation of intransitive movements by shadows and line drawings of hands. This study examined the suppression of electroencephalography mu waves (8–13 Hz) induced by observation of stimuli in 18 healthy students. Three stimuli were used: real hand actions, hand shadow actions and actions made by line drawings of hands. The results showed significant desynchronization of the mu rhythm (“mu suppression”) across the sensorimotor cortex (recorded at C3, Cz and C4), the frontal cortex (recorded at F3, Fz and F4) and the central and right posterior parietal cortex (recorded at Pz and P4) under all three conditions. Our experimental findings suggest that the observation of “impoverished hand actions”, such as intransitive movements of shadows and line drawings of hands, is able to activate widespread cortical areas related to the putative human mirror neuron system.

Do fearful eyes activate empathy-related brain regions in individuals with callous traits?

Psychopathy, a developmental disorder characterized by profound social disturbance, is associated with impaired recognition of distress cues. Since distress processing and moral socialization are closely linked, uncovering techniques to improve distress recognition could have positive treatment implications for developmental disorders that feature empathy impairments. Previous studies demonstrate that fear-recognition deficits can be remedied by redirecting attention to critical cues (the eyes for fearful faces). However, it remains unclear whether this manipulation increases activity in empathy-related brain regions, or has an alternate compensatory effect that may not promote prosocial behaviours. In this fMRI study, a community sample of individuals with high vs low callous traits completed an emotion recognition task that varied whether the most or least socially meaningful facial features were visible (the eyes were isolated or occluded). For fearful faces, individuals with high callous traits showed significantly less amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex activity than those with low callous traits when the eyes were occluded, but not when they were isolated. Consistent with recent models of the amygdala that emphasize orientation to disambiguate stimuli rather than represent distress, individuals with low trait empathy showed greater amygdala activity to the least vs most socially meaningful features of fearful faces.

[Impaired resonance in offenders with psychopathic traits]

BACKGROUND

Resonance is the phenomenon of unconsciously mirroring the motor actions of another person. Beside autism and schizophrenia psychopathic personality traits are associated with empathy dysfunction.

METHODS

We explore empathic resonance in terms of contagion by laughing and yawning in a group of offenders with psychopathic traits. Offenders with psychopathic traits (n = 12) and matched controls (n = 10) were video-taped while watching short video sequences of yawning, laughing or neutral faces. They were rated regarding contagion. Further, we assessed a self-report on psychopathy and on empathic tendencies.

RESULTS

Compared to the control group, the offenders showed significantly less contagion and less self-reported empathic tendencies. Individuals who rated themselves as more empathic showed more contagion.

CONCLUSIONS

The observed reduced resonance in terms of contagion may illuminate the cold-heartedness, with which some psychopathic offenders treat their victims: When embodied experiencing of other's physical and emotional situation is missing, a natural inhibition of violence may be overcome. The small sample size limits the generalisability of these findings.

Cortical thinning in psychopathy

OBJECTIVE

Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with severely antisocial behavior and a host of cognitive and affective deficits. The neuropathological basis of the disorder has not been clearly established. Cortical thickness is a sensitive measure of brain structure that has been used to identify neurobiological abnormalities in a number of psychiatric disorders. The authors assessed cortical thickness and corresponding functional connectivity in psychopathic prison inmates.

METHOD

Using T1 MRI data, the authors computed cortical thickness maps in a sample of adult male prison inmates selected on the basis of psychopathy diagnosis (21 psychopathic inmates and 31 nonpsychopathic inmates). Using restingstate functional MRI data from a subset of these inmates (20 psychopathic inmates and 20 nonpsychopathic inmates), the authors then computed functional connectivity within networks exhibiting significant thinning among psychopaths.

RESULTS

Relative to nonpsychopaths, psychopaths had significantly thinner cortex in a number of regions, including the left insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the left and right precentral gyri, the left and right anterior temporal cortices, and the right inferior frontal gyrus. These neurostructural differences were not due to differences in age, IQ, or substance use. Psychopaths also exhibited a corresponding reduction in functional connectivity between the left insula and the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.

CONCLUSIONS

Psychopathy is associated with a distinct pattern of cortical thinning and reduced functional connectivity.