Zijlmans J, Bevaart F, van Duin L, Luijks M J A, Popma A, Marhe R
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Biol Psychol. 2019 May;144:46-53. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.03.014. Epub 2019 Mar 27.
One of the most prominent issues in psychopathy is the inability to adequately monitor one's performance and learn from one's mistakes. We investigated the relationship between psychopathic traits, as measured with the Youth Psychopathy Inventory - Short Version, and both early and late error-related brain activity in an at-risk sample of male young adults. These multi-problem young adults (age 18-27) are severely dysfunctional in society and suffer from multiple problems including financial problems, delinquency, psychological problems, and drug use. Our final sample consisted of 115 multi-problem young adults and 26 controls. Participants performed an Eriksen-Flanker task during EEG measurements. We used the difference wave of the error-related negativity (ΔERN) as a measure of early error processing and the error positivity (Pe) as a measure of late error processing. Multi-problem young adults showed reduced ERN amplitudes compared to controls, but did not differ in Pe amplitude. We found no statistically significant relation between psychopathic traits and ERN and Pe amplitudes within the multi-problem group. Thus, we found evidence for dysfunctional error-processing in multi-problem young adults compared to controls. However, within the multi-problem sample we did not find evidence for a relationship between psychopathic traits and dysfunctional error-processing. One explanation may be that this is due to the specific developmental stage of our young adult participants in which a transition between error-processing deficits, as present in adolescents high in psychopathic traits, and error-processing overcompensation, as present in adults high in psychopathic traits, may occur.
精神变态最突出的问题之一是无法充分监控自己的行为表现并从错误中吸取教训。我们在一个有风险的男性青年样本中，研究了用青少年精神变态量表简版测量的精神变态特质与早期和晚期错误相关脑活动之间的关系。这些多问题青年（年龄在18 - 27岁之间）在社会中严重功能失调，患有多种问题，包括经济问题、犯罪、心理问题和吸毒。我们的最终样本包括115名多问题青年和26名对照组。参与者在脑电图测量期间执行了一项埃里克森侧翼任务。我们使用错误相关负波（ΔERN）的差异波作为早期错误处理的指标，以及错误正波（Pe）作为晚期错误处理的指标。与对照组相比，多问题青年的ERN波幅降低，但Pe波幅没有差异。我们在多问题组中未发现精神变态特质与ERN和Pe波幅之间存在统计学上的显著关系。因此，我们发现与对照组相比，多问题青年存在错误处理功能失调的证据。然而，在多问题样本中，我们未发现精神变态特质与错误处理功能失调之间存在关系的证据。一种解释可能是，这是由于我们青年参与者的特定发育阶段，在这个阶段，可能会出现从具有高精神变态特质的青少年中存在的错误处理缺陷，到具有高精神变态特质的成年人中存在的错误处理过度补偿的转变。
