Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Biol Psychiatry. 2010 Jan 1;67(1):52-8. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.06.018.
The corpus striatum, comprised of the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus, plays an important role in reward processing and may be involved in the pathophysiology of antisocial behavior. Few studies have explored whether differences are present in the striatum of antisocial individuals. Here, we examine the structure of the striatum in relation to psychopathy.
Using a case-control design, we examined the volume of the striatum in psychopathic individuals compared with control subjects matched for age, sex, ethnicity, and substance dependence. Twenty-two psychopathic individuals assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and 22 comparison subjects underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. Volumes of the left and right lenticular nucleus (putamen and globus pallidus), caudate head, and caudate body were assessed and the psychopathic and control groups were compared.
Psychopathic individuals showed a 9.6% increase in striatum volumes. Analyses of subfactors of psychopathy revealed that caudate body volumes were primarily associated with the interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy, while caudate head volumes were primarily associated with the impulsive, stimulation-seeking features.
These findings provide new evidence for differences in the striatum of psychopathic individuals. This structural difference may partially underlie the reward-seeking and decision-making deficits associated with psychopathy.
纹状体由尾状核、壳核和苍白球组成，在奖励处理中发挥重要作用，可能与反社会行为的病理生理学有关。很少有研究探讨反社会个体的纹状体是否存在差异。在这里，我们研究了纹状体与精神病态的结构关系。
采用病例对照设计，我们比较了使用精神病态检查表修订版评估的 22 名精神病态个体和 22 名匹配年龄、性别、种族和物质依赖的对照受试者的纹状体体积。对左、右豆状核（壳核和苍白球）、尾状核头部和尾状核体的体积进行评估，并比较精神病态组和对照组。
精神病态个体的纹状体体积增加了 9.6%。精神病态亚因素的分析表明，尾状核体体积主要与精神病态的人际和情感特征有关，而尾状核头部体积主要与冲动、寻求刺激的特征有关。
这些发现为精神病态个体纹状体的差异提供了新的证据。这种结构差异可能部分解释了与精神病态相关的奖励寻求和决策缺陷。
