Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Cortex. 2013 May;49(5):1377-85. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.06.003. Epub 2012 Jun 23.
Often typified as cunning social predators, psychopathic offenders show a persistent pattern of impulsive and reckless behavior, the pathophysiology of which has been related to dysfunction in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). That is, the DLPFC is important for the regulatory control of impulses and emotion as well as working memory and psychopathic offenders show impairments in all three dimensions. In the present study, we used combined transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography to compare the physiology of the DLPFC in 13 psychopathic offenders and 15 healthy subjects vis à vis excitability and inhibition. In addition, working memory performance was measured through the letter-number sequencing test. Results showed that compared to healthy subjects, psychopathic offenders had inhibition not excitability deficits in the DLPFC that was accompanied by deficits in working memory performance. In healthy controls and psychopathic offenders working memory performance correlated with the extent of inhibition over the DLPFC. Taken together, these findings suggest that psychopathic offenders suffer from dysfunctional inhibitory neurotransmission in the DLPFC and impaired working memory which may account for the behavioral impairments associated with this disorder.
通常被认为是狡猾的社会掠夺者，精神病患者表现出持续的冲动和鲁莽行为模式，其病理生理学与背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）的功能障碍有关。也就是说，DLPFC 对于冲动和情绪的调节控制以及工作记忆都很重要，精神病患者在这三个方面都有损伤。在本研究中，我们使用经颅磁刺激和脑电图相结合的方法，比较了 13 名精神病患者和 15 名健康受试者的 DLPFC 生理学，对比兴奋性和抑制性。此外，通过字母-数字排序测试测量工作记忆表现。结果表明，与健康受试者相比，精神病患者的 DLPFC 存在抑制而非兴奋不足，同时工作记忆表现也存在缺陷。在健康对照组和精神病患者中，工作记忆表现与 DLPFC 的抑制程度相关。综上所述，这些发现表明，精神病患者的 DLPFC 存在抑制性神经传递功能障碍和工作记忆受损，这可能解释了与该障碍相关的行为障碍。
