Hoppenbrouwers Sylco S, De Jesus Danilo R, Sun Yinming, Stirpe Tania, Hofman Dennis, McMaster Jeff, Hughes Ginny, Daskalakis Zafiris J, Schutter Dennis J L G
Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Schizophrenia program, Toronto, Ont.
J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2014 Jan;39(1):22-30. doi: 10.1503/jpn.120046.
Psychopathic offenders inevitably violate interpersonal norms and frequently resort to aggressive and criminal behaviour. The affective and cognitive deficits underlying these behaviours have been linked to abnormalities in functional interhemispheric connectivity. However, direct neurophysiological evidence for dysfunctional connectivity in psychopathic offenders is lacking.
We used transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalography to examine interhemispheric connectivity in the dorsolateral and motor cortex in a sample of psychopathic offenders and healthy controls. We also measured intracortical inhibition and facilitation over the left and right motor cortex to investigate the effects of local cortical processes on interhemispheric connectivity.
We enrolled 17 psychopathic offenders and 14 controls in our study. Global abnormalities in right to left functional connectivity were observed in psychopathic offenders compared with controls. Furthermore, in contrast to controls, psychopathic offenders showed increased intracortical inhibition in the right, but not the left, hemisphere.
The relatively small sample size limited the sensitivity to show that the abnormalities in interhemispheric connectivity were specifically related to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in psychopathic offenders.
To our knowledge, this study provides the first neurophysiological evidence for abnormal interhemispheric connectivity in psychopathic offenders and may further our understanding of the disruptive antisocial behaviour of these offenders.
患有精神病态的罪犯不可避免地会违反人际规范，并经常诉诸攻击和犯罪行为。这些行为背后的情感和认知缺陷与功能性半球间连接异常有关。然而，缺乏关于患有精神病态的罪犯连接功能障碍的直接神经生理学证据。
我们使用经颅磁刺激结合脑电图来检查一组患有精神病态的罪犯和健康对照者的背外侧和运动皮层的半球间连接。我们还测量了左右运动皮层的皮质内抑制和易化，以研究局部皮质过程对半球间连接的影响。
我们的研究招募了17名患有精神病态的罪犯和14名对照者。与对照者相比，在患有精神病态的罪犯中观察到从右到左功能连接的整体异常。此外，与对照者不同，患有精神病态的罪犯右侧半球的皮质内抑制增加，但左侧半球没有增加。
相对较小的样本量限制了显示半球间连接异常与患有精神病态的罪犯背外侧前额叶皮质特别相关的敏感性。
据我们所知，本研究为患有精神病态的罪犯半球间连接异常提供了首个神经生理学证据，并可能增进我们对这些罪犯破坏性行为的理解。
