The Impact of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Externalizing Tendencies on Neural Responsivity to Reward and Punishment in Healthy Adolescents

Functional Connectivity of the Nucleus Accumbens across Variants of Callous-Unemotional Traits: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Children and Adolescents

A large body of literature suggests that the primary (high callousness-unemotional traits [CU] and low anxiety) and secondary (high CU traits and anxiety) variants of psychopathy significantly differ in terms of their clinical profiles. However, little is known about their neurobiological differences. While few studies showed that variants differ in brain activity during fear processing, it remains unknown whether they also show atypical functioning in motivational and reward system. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was conducted on a large sample of adolescents (n = 1416) to identify variants based on their levels of callousness and anxiety. Seed-to-voxel connectivity analysis was subsequently performed on resting-state fMRI data to compare connectivity patterns of the nucleus accumbens across subgroups. LPA failed to identify the primary variant when using total score of CU traits. Using a family-wise cluster correction, groups did not differ on functional connectivity. However, at an uncorrected threshold the secondary variant showed distinct functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and posterior insula, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and parietal regions. Secondary LPA analysis using only the callousness subscale successfully distinguish both variants. Group differences replicated results of deficits in functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and posterior insula and supplementary motor area, but additionally showed effect in the superior temporal gyrus which was specific to the primary variant. The current study supports the importance of examining the neurobiological markers across subgroups of adolescents at risk for conduct problems to precise our understanding of this heterogeneous population.

Callous and Unemotional Traits as Precursors to the Development of Female Psychopathy

OBJECTIVE

Conduct a systematic review concerning the literature that reflects whether the callous and unemotional traits present in childhood and/or adolescence are precursors in the development of female psychopathy in adulthood.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A systematic review involved consulting three databases-EBSCO, the Web of Science, and PubMed-for peer-reviewed and quantitative studies within the period 2000-2023. Nine articles with quality of three and above were included.

RESULTS

The presence of callous and unemotional traits designates a group of youth that show characteristics associated with psychopathy, specifically when predicting a more severe and chronic pattern of antisocial behaviour. Children with high rates of callous and unemotional traits, who show symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in combination with severe conduct problems, are most likely to show features associated with psychopathy. The multidimensional psychopathy construct is considered a better predictor of future and stable antisocial behaviour than the callous and unemotional traits alone model.

CONCLUSIONS

According to the studies selected, the callous and unemotional traits in childhood seem to be precursors of female psychopathy in adulthood, but only because of the way they seem to enhance conduct problems, disruptive behaviour disorders, and, as a possible outcome, delinquency and antisocial traits, which may be precursors of future psychopathy.

Sex differences in externalizing and internalizing traits and ventral striatal responses to monetary loss

Ventral striatum (VS) processes rewarding and punishing stimuli. Women and men vary in externalizing and internalizing traits, which may influence neural responses to reward and punishment. To investigate sex differences in how individual traits influence VS responses to reward and punishment, we curated the data of the Human Connectome Project and identified 981 (473 men) subjects evaluated by the Achenbach Adult Self-Report Syndrome Scales. We processed the imaging data with published routines and extracted VS response (β) to win and to loss vs. baseline in a gambling task for correlation with externalizing and internalizing symptom severity. Men vs. women showed more severe externalizing symptoms and higher VS response to monetary losses (VS-loss β) but not to wins. Men but not women showed a significant, positive correlation between VS-loss β and externalizing traits, and the sex difference was confirmed by a slope test. The correlations of VS-loss vs. externalizing and of VS-win vs. externalizing and those of VS-loss vs. externalizing and of VS-loss vs. internalizing traits both differed significantly in slope, confirming its specificity, in men. Further, the sex-specific relationship between VS-loss β and externalizing trait did not extend to activities during exposure to negative emotion in the face matching task. To conclude, VS responses to loss but not to win and their correlation with externalizing rather than internalizing symptom severity showed sex differences in young adults. The findings highlight the relationship of externalizing traits and VS response to monetary loss and may have implications for psychological models of externalizing behaviors in men.

Antisocial behavior is associated with reduced frontoparietal activity to loss in a population-based sample of adolescents

BACKGROUND

Adolescent antisocial behavior (AB) is a public health concern due to the high financial and social costs of AB on victims and perpetrators. Neural systems involved in reward and loss processing are thought to contribute to AB. However, investigations into these processes are limited: few have considered anticipatory and consummatory components of reward, response to loss, nor whether associations with AB may vary by level of callous-unemotional (CU) traits.

METHODS

A population-based community sample of 128 predominantly low-income youth (mean age = 15.9 years; 42% male) completed a monetary incentive delay task during fMRI. A multi-informant, multi-method latent variable approach was used to test associations between AB and neural response to reward and loss anticipation and outcome and whether CU traits moderated these associations.

RESULTS

AB was not associated with neural response to reward but was associated with reduced frontoparietal activity during loss outcomes. This association was moderated by CU traits such that individuals with higher levels of AB and CU traits had the largest reductions in frontoparietal activity. Co-occurring AB and CU traits were also associated with increased precuneus response during loss anticipation.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicate that AB is associated with reduced activity in brain regions involved in cognitive control, attention, and behavior modification during negative outcomes. Moreover, these reductions are most pronounced in youth with co-occurring CU traits. These findings have implications for understanding why adolescents involved in AB continue these behaviors despite severe negative consequences (e.g. incarceration).

How reliable are amygdala findings in psychopathy? A systematic review of MRI studies

The amygdala is a key component in predominant neural circuitry models of psychopathy. Yet, after two decades of neuroimaging research on psychopathy, the reproducibility of amygdala findings is questionable. We systematically reviewed MRI studies (81 of adults, 53 of juveniles) to determine the consistency of amygdala findings across studies, as well as within specific types of experimental tasks, community versus forensic populations, and the lowest- versus highest-powered studies. Three primary findings emerged. First, the majority of studies found null relationships between psychopathy and amygdala structure and function, even in the context of theoretically relevant tasks. Second, findings of reduced amygdala activity were more common in studies with low compared to high statistical power. Third, the majority of peak coordinates of reduced amygdala activity did not fall primarily within the anatomical bounds of the amygdala. Collectively, these findings demonstrate significant gaps in the empirical support for the theorized role of the amygdala in psychopathy and indicate the need for novel research perspectives and approaches in this field.

Individual differences in white matter of the uncinate fasciculus and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus: possible early biomarkers for callous-unemotional behaviors in young children with disruptive behavior problems

BACKGROUND

Callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors are important for identifying severe patterns of conduct problems (CP). One major fiber tract implicated in the development of CP is the uncinate fasciculus (UF), which connects amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). The goals of the current study were to (a) explore differences in the white matter microstructure in the UF and other major fiber tracks between young typically developing (TD) children and those with a disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) and (b) explore, within the DBD group, whether individual differences in these white matter tracts relate to co-occurring CP and CU behaviors.

METHODS

Participants included 198 young children (69% boys, Mage  = 5.66 years; 80% Latinx; 48.5% TD). CU behaviors and CP were measured via a combination of teacher/parent ratings. Non-invasive diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) was used to measure fractional anisotropy (FA), an indirect indicator of white matter properties.

RESULTS

Relative to TD children, children in the DBD group had reduced FA on four out of the five fiber tracks we examined (except for cingulum and right ILF), even after accounting for whole brain FA, sex, movement, parental income, and IQ. Within the DBD group, no associations were found between CP and reduced white matter integrity across any of the fiber tracks examined. However, we found that even after accounting for CP, ADHD symptomology, and a host of covariates (whole brain FA, sex, movement, parental income, and IQ), CU behaviors were independently related to reduced FA in bilateral UF and left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) in the DBD group, but this was not the case for TD children.

CONCLUSIONS

Alterations in the white matter microstructure within bilateral UF and left IFOF may be biomarkers of CU behaviors, even in very young children.

Multi-band FMRI compromises detection of mesolimbic reward responses

Recent innovations in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) have sped data collection by enabling simultaneous scans of neural activity in multiple brain locations, but have these innovations come at a cost? In a meta-analysis and preregistered direct comparison of original data, we examined whether acquiring FMRI data with multi-band versus single-band scanning protocols might compromise detection of mesolimbic activity during reward processing. Meta-analytic results (n = 44 studies; cumulative n = 5005 subjects) indicated that relative to single-band scans, multi-band scans showed significantly decreased effect sizes for reward anticipation in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) by more than half. Direct within-subject comparison of single-band versus multi-band scanning data (multi-band factors = 4 and 8; n = 12 subjects) acquired during repeated administration of the Monetary Incentive Delay task indicated that reductions in temporal signal-to-noise ratio could account for compromised detection of task-related responses in mesolimbic regions (i.e., the NAcc). Together, these findings imply that researchers should opt for single-band over multi-band scanning protocols when probing mesolimbic responses with FMRI. The findings also have implications for inferring mesolimbic activity during related tasks and rest, for summarizing historical results, and for using neuroimaging data to track individual differences in reward-related brain activity.

Neural response to monetary loss among youth with disruptive behavior disorders and callous-unemotional traits in the ABCD study

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We leveraged the ABCD Study to derive phenotypically narrow groups of youth with DBD in the largest loss processing functional MRI study to date.

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We examined neural activity to the anticipation and receipt of monetary loss using group, dimensional, and network-level analyses.

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There were no significant differences in brain activity to loss anticipation or receipt among youth with DBD with or without CU traits.

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Null findings were confirmed with and without covariates, using alternative grouping approaches, in dimensional models, and within network-level analyses.

Etiological models highlight reduced punishment sensitivity as a core risk factor for disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. The current study examined neural sensitivity to the anticipation and receipt of loss, one key aspect of punishment sensitivity, among youth with DBD, comparing those with and without CU traits. Data were obtained from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD)^SM Study (N = 11,874; Mage = 9.51; 48% female). Loss-related fMRI activity during the monetary incentive delay task was examined across 16 empirically-derived a priori brain regions (e.g., striatum, amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex) and compared across the following groups: (1) typically developing (n = 693); (2) DBD (n = 995), subdivided into those (3) with CU traits (DBD + CU, n = 198), and (4) without CU traits (DBD-only, n = 276). Latent variable modeling was also employed to examine network-level activity. There were no significant between-group differences in brain activity to loss anticipation or receipt. Null findings were confirmed with and without covariates, using alternative grouping approaches, and in dimensional models. Network-level analyses also demonstrated comparable activity across groups during loss anticipation and receipt. Findings suggest that differences in punishment sensitivity among youth with DBD are unrelated to loss anticipation or receipt. More precise characterizations of other aspects punishment sensitivity are needed to understand risk for DBD and CU traits.

Gray matter asymmetry in the orbitofrontal cortex in relation to psychopathic traits in adolescents

BACKGROUND

Structural abnormalities in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of incarcerated psychopaths have been well documented. However, the neural correlates of psychopathic traits in younger and nonclinical samples remain poorly understood.

AIM

The present study aimed to examine the structural brain asymmetry in the OFC in relation to dimensions of psychopathic traits in adolescents from the community.

METHOD

In 29 youths from the community, childhood psychopathic traits including narcissism, impulsivity, and callous-unemotional traits were assessed when they were 7- to 10 years old (Time 1), and their gray matter (GM) volumes were measured using structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging when they were 10- to 14 years old (Time 2).

RESULTS

After controlling for age, sex, IQ, pubertal stage, and whole-brain volumes, callous-unemotional traits were associated with right-left asymmetry in the medial OFC (mOFC), that is, smaller right mOFC GM as compared to the left. Impulsivity was associated with left-right asymmetry in the mOFC, that is, smaller left mOFC than the right. Narcissism was not associated with any GM asymmetry measure. No significant association was found for the lateral OFC, amygdala, caudate and putamen.

CONCLUSION

The present findings provide further support that dimensions of psychopathic traits may have distinct neurobiological correlates.