Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University, Rotterdam 3062 PA, The Netherlands.
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2023 Mar 31;18(1). doi: 10.1093/scan/nsad016.
Self-concept is shaped by social experiences, but it is not yet well understood how the neural and behavioral development of self-concept is influenced by a history of antisocial behavior. In this pre-registered study, we examined neural responses to self-evaluations in young adults who engaged with antisocial behavior in childhood and either desisted or persisted in antisocial behavior. A self-concept task was performed by 94 young adults (age range 18-30 years). During the task, participants with a persistent or desistent antisocial trajectory (n = 54) and typically developing young adults (n = 40) rated whether positive and negative traits in different domains (prosocial and physical) described themselves. We examined both the effects of a history of antisocial behavior as well as current heterogeneity in psychopathic traits on self-concept appraisal and its neural underpinnings. Participants endorsed more positive trait statements than negative across domains, which did not differ between antisocial-history groups. However, current psychopathic traits were negatively associated with prosocial self-concept and medial prefrontal cortex activity during self-evaluation. Together, these findings suggest that antisocial tendencies might indeed be reflected in self-concept development of young adults, specifically in the prosocial domain.
自我概念是由社会经验塑造的，但目前还不清楚反社会行为史如何影响自我概念的神经和行为发展。在这项预先注册的研究中，我们研究了在童年时期有反社会行为的年轻人中，反社会行为的持续或停止如何影响自我概念的神经反应。94 名年轻成年人（年龄在 18 至 30 岁之间）参与了自我概念任务。在任务中，具有持续或停止的反社会轨迹的参与者（n=54）和典型的发展中的年轻人（n=40）评估了不同领域（亲社会和身体）的积极和消极特征是否描述了自己。我们既研究了反社会行为史的影响，也研究了当前精神病态特征的异质性对自我概念评估及其神经基础的影响。参与者在各个领域都更倾向于积极的特征陈述，而反社会行为史组之间没有差异。然而，当前的精神病态特征与亲社会自我概念和自我评估期间的内侧前额叶皮层活动呈负相关。总之，这些发现表明，反社会倾向确实可能反映在年轻人的自我概念发展中，特别是在亲社会领域。
