Functional Connectivity Bias in the Prefrontal Cortex of Psychopaths
Issue date
2015Author
Contreras-Rodríguez, Oren
Harrison, Ben J.
Soriano-Mas, Carles
Deus Yela, Juan
López-Solà, Marina
Macià, Dídac
Pera Guardiola, Vanessa
Hernández-Ribas, Rosa
Menchón, José M.
Cardoner, N. (Narcís)
Suggested citation
Contreras-Rodríguez, Oren;
Pujol Salud, Jesús;
Batalla, Iolanda;
Harrison, Ben J.;
Soriano-Mas, Carles;
Deus Yela, Juan;
...
Cardoner, N. (Narcís).
(2015)
.
Functional Connectivity Bias in the Prefrontal Cortex of Psychopaths.
Biological Psychiatry, 2015, vol. 78, núm. 9, p. 647-655.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.03.007.
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Show full item recordAbstract
BACKGROUND: Psychopathy is characterized by a distinctive interpersonal style that combines callousunemotional
traits with inflexible and antisocial behavior. Traditional emotion-based perspectives link emotional
impairment mostly to alterations in amygdala-ventromedial frontal circuits. However, these models alone cannot
explain why individuals with psychopathy can regularly benefit from emotional information when placed on their
focus of attention and why they are more resistant to interference from nonaffective contextual cues. The present
study aimed to identify abnormal or distinctive functional links between and within emotional and cognitive brain
systems in the psychopathic brain to characterize further the neural bases of psychopathy.
METHODS: High-resolution anatomic magnetic resonance imaging with a functional sequence acquired in the
resting state was used to assess 22 subjects with psychopathy and 22 control subjects. Anatomic and functional
connectivity alterations were investigated first using a whole-brain analysis. Brain regions showing overlapping
anatomic and functional changes were examined further using seed-based functional connectivity mapping.
RESULTS: Subjects with psychopathy showed gray matter reduction involving prefrontal cortex, paralimbic, and
limbic structures. Anatomic changes overlapped with areas showing increased degree of functional connectivity at
the medial-dorsal frontal cortex. Subsequent functional seed-based connectivity mapping revealed a pattern of
reduced functional connectivity of prefrontal areas with limbic-paralimbic structures and enhanced connectivity
within the dorsal frontal lobe in subjects with psychopathy.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that a weakened link between emotional and cognitive domains in the
psychopathic brain may combine with enhanced functional connections within frontal executive areas. The identified
functional alterations are discussed in the context of potential contributors to the inflexible behavior displayed by
individuals with psychopathy.