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br Introduction Psychopathy is a
Introduction
Psychopathy is a multifaceted personality disorder characterized by affective, interpersonal, and behavioral dysfunction. Psychopaths have been classically defined by their overall absence of moral emotions and their impulsive, irresponsible lifestyle (Hare, 1991, 2003). About 15–25% of incarcerated offenders meet the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy, with increased prevalence in higher security levels (Hare, 2003). This disconcerting population has often proven impervious to treatment intervention approaches, as highlighted by their increased propensity towards violent recidivism (Hemphill et al., 1998; Rice & Harris, 1997). Researchers have recently attempted to delineate the adolescent manifestation of this condition, as personality traits are still in nascent stages of development. Intervention efforts targeted at youth may have a better chance of altering life-course persistent antisocial behavior if started early (Caldwell, 2011; Caldwell et al., 2007).
Youth scoring high on measures of psychopathic traits exhibit similar neurocognitive deficits as adult psychopathic offenders. For example, youth with elevated psychopathic traits exhibit increased behavioral impulsivity (Roussy & Toupin, 2000), reduced sensitivity to punishment cues (Vitale et al., 2005), and passive avoidance learning (Finger et al., 2008) deficits. Furthermore, using both functional and structural neuroimaging, abnormalities have been observed in youth with elevated psychopathic traits consistent with adult psychopathic offenders as young as fourteen years of age (Cope et al., 2014; Ermer et al., 2013; Harenski et al., 2014; Lockwood et al., 2013; Marsh et al., 2008). Reduced hemodynamic activity and reduced gray matter have been found in a number of paralimbic regions, including the orbitofrontal integrin signaling pathway (Cope et al., 2014; Ermer et al., 2013), insula (Lockwood et al., 2013), amygdala (Harenski et al., 2014; Marsh et al., 2008), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) (Ermer et al., 2013), parahippocampal gyrus (Ermer et al., 2013), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Cope et al., 2014; Ermer et al., 2013; Marsh et al., 2008).
One additional cognitive deficit juveniles with elevated psychopathic traits may experience is the processing of error-related information. Youth with elevated psychopathic traits often perseverate during behavioral inhibition and experimental learning paradigms, failing to adjust their behavior to meet the demands established by external sources (Budhani & Blair, 2005; Finger et al., 2008; Roussy & Toupin, 2000; Vitale et al., 2005). Event-related potentials (ERPs) are commonly used to examine different components of cognitive control including error-related processing. The two most frequently investigated error-related ERPs are the error-related negativity (the ERN or Ne) and the error-related positivity (Pe). Though closely related temporally, the ERN/Ne and Pe reflect distinct stages of error-related processing. The ERN/Ne reflects initial, automatic error-correction and action-monitoring processes (Falkenstein et al., 1991; Gehring et al., 1993; Yeung & Summerfield, 2012). However, the Pe is involved in later, more elaborative error-processing stages, indexing the accumulation of error-related information (Yeung & Summerfield, 2012), including the motivational (Ullsperger et al., 2010) or affective (Overbeek et al., 2005) appraisal of such stimuli. Additionally, the ERN/Ne is said to arise within the cognitive, caudal division of the ACC (cACC), whereas both the caudal and rostral portions (rACC) of the ACC contribute to Pe amplitude (Edwards et al., 2012; van Veen & Carter, 2002). However, recent evidence suggests resting potential the ERN/Ne may be generated by the PCC (Agam et al., 2011), whereas the insula may additionally contribute to the Pe (Schroder et al., 2012; Ullsperger et al., 2010).
In adult psychopathic offenders, several studies have found comparable ERN/Ne amplitudes between adult psychopaths and control groups when using affectively neutral stimuli (Brazil et al., 2009; Brazil et al., 2011; Maurer et al., in press; Munro et al., 2007; Steele et al., 2016; von Borries et al., 2010). However, reduced ERN/Ne amplitude has been observed in adult psychopathic offenders when incorporating evocative angry and fearful facial stimuli (Munro et al., 2007).