Sethi Arjun, Gregory Sarah, Dell'Acqua Flavio, Periche Thomas Eva, Simmons Andy, Murphy Declan G M, Hodgins Sheilagh, Blackwood Nigel J, Craig Michael C
NatBrainLab, London, UK; Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
Cortex. 2015 Jan;62:11-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.07.018. Epub 2014 Aug 12.
Criminal psychopathy is defined by emotional detachment [Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R) factor 1], and antisocial behaviour (PCL-R factor 2). Previous work has associated antisocial behaviour in psychopathy with abnormalities in a ventral temporo-amygdala-orbitofrontal network. However, little is known of the neural correlates of emotional detachment. Imaging studies have indicated that the 'default-mode network' (DMN), and in particular its dorsomedial (medial prefrontal - posterior cingulate) component, contributes to affective and social processing in healthy individuals. Furthermore, recent work suggests that this network may be implicated in psychopathy. However, no research has examined the relationship between psychopathy, emotional detachment, and the white matter underpinning the DMN. We therefore used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography in 13 offenders with psychopathy and 13 non-offenders to investigate the relationship between emotional detachment and the microstructure of white matter connections within the DMN. These included the dorsal cingulum (containing the medial prefrontal - posterior cingulate connections of the DMN), and the ventral cingulum (containing the posterior cingulate - medial temporal connections of the DMN). We found that fractional anisotropy (FA) was reduced in the left dorsal cingulum in the psychopathy group (p = .024). Moreover, within this group, emotional detachment was negatively correlated with FA in this tract portion bilaterally (left: r = -.61, p = .026; right: r = -.62, p = .023). These results suggest the importance of the dorsal DMN in the emotional detachment observed in individuals with psychopathy. We propose a 'dual-network' model of white matter abnormalities in the disorder, which incorporates these with previous findings.
犯罪性精神病态由情感淡漠（《精神病态量表修订版》（PCL-R）因子1）和反社会行为（PCL-R因子2）来定义。先前的研究已将精神病态中的反社会行为与腹侧颞叶-杏仁核-眶额网络的异常联系起来。然而，对于情感淡漠的神经关联却知之甚少。影像学研究表明，“默认模式网络”（DMN），尤其是其背内侧（内侧前额叶-后扣带回）成分，在健康个体的情感和社会加工中发挥作用。此外，近期研究表明该网络可能与精神病态有关。然而，尚无研究考察精神病态、情感淡漠与构成DMN的白质之间的关系。因此，我们对13名患有精神病态的罪犯和13名非罪犯使用弥散张量成像（DTI）纤维束成像技术，以研究情感淡漠与DMN内白质连接微观结构之间的关系。这些白质连接包括背侧扣带束（包含DMN的内侧前额叶-后扣带回连接）和腹侧扣带束（包含DMN的后扣带回-内侧颞叶连接）。我们发现，精神病态组左侧背侧扣带束的各向异性分数（FA）降低（p = 0.024）。此外，在该组中，情感淡漠与双侧该纤维束部分的FA呈负相关（左侧：r = -0.61，p = 0.026；右侧：r = -0.62，p = 0.023）。这些结果表明背侧DMN在患有精神病态的个体所表现出的情感淡漠中具有重要作用。我们提出了该疾病白质异常的“双网络”模型，将这些结果与先前的发现结合起来。
