Autonomic stress reactivity and executive functions in successful and unsuccessful criminal psychopaths from the community.

Abstract

A significant gap in the psychopathy literature is the lack of studies comparing "successful," nonconvicted psychopaths with "unsuccessful," convicted psychopaths. This study tested the hypothesis that successful psychopaths show increased autonomic stress reactivity and better neuropsychological function compared with unsuccessful psychopaths. A total of 26 controls, 16 unsuccessful psychopaths, and 13 successful psychopaths were assessed on psychophysiological measures recorded during an emotional manipulation, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Wechsler Memory Scale--Revised subtests, and childhood stressors. Compared with controls, unsuccessful psychopaths showed reduced cardiovascular stress reactivity. In contrast, successful psychopaths showed heightened reactivity, better WCST performance, and more parental absence than unsuccessful psychopaths and controls. The implications of these findings and the generalizability of existing psychopathy research are discussed.

Abnormal Structural Correlates of Response Perseveration in Individuals With Psychopathy

“…15 The two groups did not differ in age, gender, ethnicity, handedness, or substance dependence. 12 This cutoff was chosen to be consistent with our previous research on this sample, 9,12,15 and is similar to the optimal cutoff suggested by taxometric analyses of the PCL-R. 16 Full informed, written consent was obtained from all subjects in accordance with Institutional Review Board procedures at University of Southern California. 12 …”

“…12 Response perseveration was assessed using a computerized version of the WCST, 7 and standardized scores were computed for perseverative and nonperseverative errors. 9 We conducted a partial correlation analysis, examining the group difference in the performance scores of the WCST, and findings revealed that increased total PCL–R score correlated significantly with increased WCST perseverative (r=0.2; p=0.027) but not nonperseverative error scores (r=0.12, p=0.12) across the entire sample, while controlling for age and full-scale IQ.…”

“…5,6 In an experimental setting, perseveration may be measured using neuropsychological tasks such as the Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test (WCST), 7 and studies using the WCST in psychopathic populations have reported increased perseverative response to be correlated with increased features of psychopathy. 8,9 …”

Neurocognitive elements of antisocial behavior: Relevance of an orbitofrontal cortex account

“…A few exceptions are noted in studies where psychopaths were subdivided as a function of anxiety levels (Smith, Arnett, & Newman, 1992)-which is a construct that shares a complex relation with psychopathy (Frick, Lilienfeld, Ellis, Loney, & Silverthorn, 1999;, or as a function of whether psychopaths tend to be successful or not (i.e., the more successful have better dorsolateral frontal lobe ability; Ishikawa, Raine, Lencz, Bihrle, & LaCasse, 2001). However, the Smith et al (1992) study found two significant effects (out of 6 expected) for the Block Design subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and for the Trail Making Test-B after controlling for IQ and substance abuse for a comparison between low anxious psychopaths and low anxious nonpsychopaths, but the results were not clear when analyzed in a psychopathy by anxiety factorial design.…”

“…In contrast, psychopaths performed significantly poorly on OFC tasks in that same study. Finally, note also that the Ishikawa et al (2001) study did not use the PCL-R definition of psychopathy. The absence of clear neuropsychological impairments is important for testing an OFC account of psychopathy because localized OFC lesions typically do not affect performance on conventional neuropsychological tests.…”