Antisocial and aggressive behavior - blair (2013) Neurobiology of psychopathic traits
31 important questions on Antisocial and aggressive behavior - blair (2013) Neurobiology of psychopathic traits
Which two forms of conduct disorder do we have
- associated with increased risk of mood and anxiety disorders and emotional instability
On which form from conduct disorder will we focus on in this paper?
They are detectable early in childhood and persist into adulthood and their presence can interfere with socialization
The diagnosis for conduct disorder has been introduced in the DSM-5 an individual must have displayed two of four characteristics in the last 12 months in multiple settings
2) callousness (lack of empathy)
3) shallow or deficient affect
4) lack of remorse or guilt
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What is reactive aggression
When is an individual more likely to respond with reactive aggression
In what type of youths is the circuit overly responsive
Where is a high rating for psychopathic traits associated with
Youths with psychopathic traits show two main cognitive impairment. Which two?
2) impairments in decision making, specifically in reinforcement learning and the representation of reinforcement expectancies
The term empathy subsumes two critical processes that are distinct at both cognitive and neural level;
- emotional empathy involves affective responses to emotional displays of other individuals and to verbal descriptions of emotional states of other individuals
True or false
psychopathic traits are associated with reductions of specific forms of emotional empathy (responding to fear, sadness, pain and happiness of others)
Psychopathic traits (impairment of normal traits) is associated with impairments in which brain region
The second cognitive impairment involves impairment in decision making (with youths with psychopathic traits). Which region of the brain is associated with this
What happens with cognitive empathy in psychopathic traits
A study with youths with psychopathic traits also showed normal recruitment of the medial frontal cortex, temporal parietal junction, posterior cingulate cortex and temporal pole when engaged in this cognitive empathy task.
What happens with emotional empathy in psychopathic traits in children en adults
- youths with psychopathic traits show reduced autonomatic responses to fearful and sad expressions and pain in other individuals.
- high callous-unemotional traits; less concerned that aggressive behavior will result in suffering in the victim
- IMPORTANT: although youths with psychopathic traits show a reduced response to emotional stimuli, the response is not absent and increasing the intensity of an emotional stimulus reduces or removes group differences in fearful expression recognition
The deficits in emotional empathy shown by adolescents with psychopathic involve amygdala dysfunction. What do they mean with this
show reduced amygdala and rostral medial frontal cortical responses to images of other individuals in pain.
impaired recognition of happy expressions may also be related to amygdala dysfunction
Healthy individuals approach objects associated with happiness in another person and avoid objects associated with fear or disgust. How is this with individuals with psychopathic traits
Which other communicatory function is important with emotional empathy?
Which brain regions are important for representing the valence of objects and actions and for using this information to guide choices towards or away from these objects and actions
What do youths with conduct disorder show for information of objects of actions in social context
adolescents with psychopathic traits not only form weaker associations between representations of actions that harm others and the aversive consequences of these actions to other individuals but also apply this information less during decision making
Where does care based judgments rely on ? (which brain area)
What is seen in individuals with psychopathic traits looking at moral judgements
the selective impairment in recognizing distress cues but not disgusted or angry expressions in individuals with psychopathic traits agrees with impairment in processing of care-based transgressions but normal processing of conventional and disgust based transgressions
What is seen in individuals with psychopathic traits looking at emotional learning and decision making
- deficits in the capacity to link outcomes with stimuli or response, and this is due to dysfunction within the amygdala, striatum and vmPFC.
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The effective use of reinforcement outcome information during decision making requires two components. Which two?
Predicition error signaling is critical for this.
- the appropriate representation of expected value when considering whether to perform an action
One particularly interesting feature of prediction eroor signaling in youths with psychopathic traits concerns their response to punishment. Why is this
Give a summary of emotional learning en decision making in psychopathic people
psychopathic traits show reduced representations of reward outcomes and expected value in the vmPFC, as well as reduced reward prediction error signaling and potentially high atypical punishment prediction error signaling in the stratium
What were the finding of structural imaging studies on psychopathic traits
fmri studies have shown that the ability to use expected value information to guide behavior may be compromised in adolescents with psychopathic traits
Structural MRI studies have relatively consistently reported reductions in the volume, thinkness or folding > no relationship of these reductions with psychopathic traits has been reported
Give a description of how psychopathic traits are developed
- environment plays role in dysfunction is structures which give rise to reduced anxiety and to decision making deficits.
- psychopathic traits are a risk factor for substance abuse > likely to further disrupt the functional integrity of neural systems that are already dysfunctional in youths in psychopathic traits.
- sMRI findings are consistent with the fMRI findings about the amygdala and caudate in individuals with conduct disorder but rather less consistent with fMRI findings about the vmPFC
What were the endocrinological findings on psychopathic traits
Given that youths with psychopathic traits show abnormal activity, it could be expected that they show a reduced cortisol response
What are the genetic factors of psychopathic traits
- specific genetic polymorphisms are associated with increased amygdala responsiveness to threat > increased risk of aggression
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What are the environmental factors
environmental factors play a smaller part than genetic factors in high levels of aggression exhibited by youths who show collous unemotional traits.
maternal substance abuse during pregnancy
reduced socioeconomic status
What are the treatment implications of conduct disorder and psychopathic traits
children with callous unemotional traits have been found more resistant to psychosocial intervention than other aggressive children
interventions that increase amygdala responsiveness
atypical antipsychotic drugs > increase levels of dopamine serotonin noradrenaline and acetylcholine in the rat medial PFC
dopamine antagonists reduce amygdala responsiveness to threat stimuli
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