Psychopathic traits linked to alterations in neural activity during personality judgments of self and others. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Psychopathic individuals are notorious for their grandiose sense of self-worth and disregard for the welfare of others. One potential psychological mechanism underlying these traits is the relative consideration of "self" versus "others". Here we used task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify neural responses during personality trait judgments about oneself and a familiar other in a sample of adult male incarcerated offenders (n = 57). Neural activity was regressed on two clusters of psychopathic traits: Factor 1 (e.g., egocentricity and lack of empathy) and Factor 2 (e.g., impulsivity and irresponsibility). Contrary to our hypotheses, Factor 1 scores were not significantly related to neural activity during self- or other-judgments. However, Factor 2 traits were associated with diminished activation to self-judgments, in relation to other-judgments, in bilateral posterior cingulate cortex and right temporoparietal junction. These findings highlight cortical regions associated with a dimension of social-affective cognition that may underlie psychopathic individuals' impulsive traits.

publication date

  • February 28, 2018

Research

keywords

  • Antisocial Personality Disorder
  • Brain
  • Judgment
  • Personality
  • Social Perception

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC5964831

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85042755940

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.nicl.2018.02.029

PubMed ID

  • 29845005

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 18