Functional connectivity in incarcerated male adolescents with psychopathic traits

Abstract

The present study examined the association between psychopathic traits and functional connectivity in 177 incarcerated male adolescents. We hypothesized that psychopathic symptoms would be associated with aberrant functional connectivity within networks encompassing limbic and paralimbic regions, such as the default mode (DMN), salience networks (SN), and executive control network (ECN). The present sample was drawn from the NIMH-funded Southwest Advanced Neuroimaging Cohort, Youth sample (SWANC-Y), and from research at a youth detention facility in Wisconsin. All participants were scanned at maximum-security facilities. Psychopathic traits were assessed using Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV). Resting-state networks were computed using group Independent Component Analysis. Associations between psychopathic traits and resting-state connectivity were assessed using Mancova analyses. PCL-YV Total score and PCL-YV Factor 1 score (interpersonal and affective traits) were associated with the power spectra of the DMN. PCL-YV Factor 1 score was associated with spatial map of the SN and the ECN. PCL-YV Factor 2 score (lifestyle and antisocial traits) was associated with spatial map of the ECN. Comparable to adult psychopathy, adolescent psychopathic traits were associated with networks implicated in self-referential thought, moral behavior, cognition, and saliency detection: functions which have previously have been reported to be disrupted in adult psychopaths.

Clarifying the Link Between Amygdala Functioning During Emotion Processing and Antisocial Behaviors Versus Callous-Unemotional Traits Within a Population-Based Community Sample

“…That is, network functioning may affect emotion-based learning processes, including the processing of emotional cues, crucial to the development of prosocial behavior (Blair, 2017). Impaired connectivity within the SN and DMN has been linked to AB and CU traits in resting-state connectivity studies of children and adolescents and to psychopathic traits in adults (e.g., Aghajani et al, 2017; Broulidakis et al, 2016; Motzkin, Newman, Kiehl, & Koenigs, 2011; Philippi et al, 2015; Pu et al, 2017; Thijssen & Kiehl, 2017) and during socioemotional tasks in adults (e.g., Decety, Chen, Harenski, & Kiehl, 2013; Waller et al, 2018). Moreover, the few existing studies relating AB to task-based connectivity in children and adolescents have found impaired connectivity between the amygdala and key nodes of the SN (i.e., anterior insula [AI], anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]) and the DMN (i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex [vmPFC], posterior cingulate cortex [PCC], precuneus; e.g., Aghajani et al, 2018; Cardinale et al, 2018; Ewbank et al, 2018; Finger et al, 2012; Hwang et al, 2016; Marsh et al, 2008; Marsh et al, 2011).…”

Different Whole-Brain Functional Connectivity Correlates of Reactive-Proactive Aggression and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Disruptive Children and Adolescents

“…CU traits related to voxel-wise rsFC alterations in left hemispheric ITG, MTG, and opercular regions along with the cerebellum linked to emotion, reward, and moral-related processes. Previous rs-fMRI studies in male adolescents reported CU-related rsFC alterations in MTG and ITG (Aghajani et al , 2016; Thijssen and Kiehl, 2017), and CD-related diminished right MTG activity (Wu et al , 2017). MTG activity has been reduced also in CD (Cao et al , 2018) and during a risk-taking task (Dalwani et al , 2014).…”

“…Disruptive children and adolescents showed CU subdimension-specific seed-based rsFC including clusters in central gyrus and precuneus (Werhahn et al , 2018). Other studies reported CU-related rsFC alterations in the DMN (Cohn et al , 2015; Pu et al , 2017; Thijssen and Kiehl, 2017) along with further frontal, temporal, parietal, and cerebellar areas (Espinoza et al , 2018). Only one study in adults addressed anxiety symptoms and reported an interaction effect with psychopathy levels (Motzkin et al , 2011), despite their prominent behavioral and psychophysiological effects (Fanti, Demetriou and Kimonis, 2013; Guelker et al , 2014; Dadds et al , 2017).…”

Aggression Subtypes Relate to Distinct Resting State Functional Connectivity in Disruptive Children and Adolescents

“…To date, only few rsFC studies have evaluated CU subdimensions in children and adolescents. While the anticorrelation between the DMN and fronto-parietal network decreased with higher CU-related traits (Pu et al, 2017), anterior DMN rsFC increased with higher scores on the CU dimension (Cohn et al, 2015), and DMN rs-fMRI parameters increased with higher CU-related total scores and interpersonal/affective traits (Thijssen & Kiehl, 2017). In male youths with CD, interpersonal traits correlated with distinct amygdala subregional rsFC with clusters including SN and DMN regions (Aghajani et al, 2016).…”