Vermeij Anouk, Kempes Maaike M, Cima Maaike J, Mars Rogier B, Brazil Inti A
Department of Science and Education, The Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology.
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University.
Neuropsychology. 2018 Sep;32(6):735-745. doi: 10.1037/neu0000448. Epub 2018 Apr 26.
Psychopathy is a personality disorder typified by lack of empathy and impulsive antisocial behavior. Psychopathic traits may partly relate to disrupted connections between brain regions. The aim of the present study was to link abnormalities in microstructural integrity of white-matter tracts to the severity of different psychopathic traits in 15 male offenders with impulse control problems and 10 without impulse control problems.
Psychopathic traits were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-revised (PCL-R). Diffusion-weighted MRI was used to examine white-matter tracts. Fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of white-matter integrity, was calculated for each voxel. Clusters of voxels showing a significant relationship with psychopathy severity were submitted to probabilistic tractography.
No significant correlations between psychopathy severity and FA were present in the whole group of impulsive and nonimpulsive offenders. In impulsive offenders, interpersonal-affective traits (PCL-R Factor 1) were negatively correlated with FA in the anterior and posterior temporal lobe and orbitofrontal area. Further analyses indicated that elevated affective traits (PCL-R Facet 2) were specifically related to reduced FA in the right temporal lobe.
Our findings suggest that white-matter abnormalities in temporal and frontotemporal tracts may be linked to the interpersonal-affective deficits of psychopathy in offenders with relatively severe impulse control problems. Our study offers novel insights into the relationships between the four facets of psychopathy and disrupted structural connectivity, and may provide new leads for further characterization of different subtypes of antisocial populations. (PsycINFO Database Record
心理变态是一种以缺乏同理心和冲动性反社会行为为特征的人格障碍。心理变态特质可能部分与脑区之间连接中断有关。本研究的目的是将白质纤维束微观结构完整性异常与15名有冲动控制问题的男性罪犯和10名无冲动控制问题的男性罪犯不同心理变态特质的严重程度联系起来。
使用修订版心理变态检查表（PCL-R）评估心理变态特质。采用扩散加权磁共振成像检查白质纤维束。计算每个体素的分数各向异性（FA），这是白质完整性的一个指标。对显示与心理变态严重程度有显著关系的体素簇进行概率性纤维束成像。
在有冲动和无冲动的罪犯全组中，心理变态严重程度与FA之间无显著相关性。在有冲动的罪犯中，人际情感特质（PCL-R因子1）与颞叶前后部和眶额区域的FA呈负相关。进一步分析表明，情感特质升高（PCL-R子面2）与右侧颞叶FA降低具体相关。
我们的研究结果表明，颞叶和额颞叶纤维束中的白质异常可能与冲动控制问题相对严重的罪犯心理变态的人际情感缺陷有关。我们的研究为心理变态的四个方面与结构连接中断之间的关系提供了新的见解，并可能为进一步刻画反社会人群的不同亚型提供新的线索。（PsycINFO数据库记录
