Psychopathy-related traits and the use of reward and social information: a computational approach

Abstract

Psychopathy is often linked to disturbed reinforcement-guided adaptation of behavior in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Recent work suggests that these disturbances might be due to a deficit in actively using information to guide changes in behavior. However, how much information is actually used to guide behavior is difficult to observe directly. Therefore, we used a computational model to estimate the use of information during learning. Thirty-six female subjects were recruited based on their total scores on the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), a self-report psychopathy list, and performed a task involving simultaneous learning of reward-based and social information. A Bayesian reinforcement-learning model was used to parameterize the use of each source of information during learning. Subsequently, we used the subscales of the PPI to assess psychopathy-related traits, and the traits that were strongly related to the model's parameters were isolated through a formal variable selection procedure. Finally, we assessed how these covaried with model parameters. We succeeded in isolating key personality traits believed to be relevant for psychopathy that can be related to model-based descriptions of subject behavior. Use of reward-history information was negatively related to levels of trait anxiety and fearlessness, whereas use of social advice decreased as the perceived ability to manipulate others and lack of anxiety increased. These results corroborate previous findings suggesting that sub-optimal use of different types of information might be implicated in psychopathy. They also further highlight the importance of considering the potential of computational modeling to understand the role of latent variables, such as the weight people give to various sources of information during goal-directed behavior, when conducting research on psychopathy-related traits and in the field of forensic psychiatry.

Instrumental rationality in psychopathy: implications from learning tasks

“…They maintain that the findings on VM patients support their prediction that psychopaths will show impairments in response reversal task when the participants are aware of the task instructions, i.e. when the nature of the task promotes intentional, controlled behavior adaptation (Brazil et al, 2013a, p. E14; see also Brazil et al, 2013b). From this we can infer that VM patients and psychopaths are similar with regard to instrumental learning tasks because they are aware of the task requirements and instructions.…”

“…However, Brazil and colleagues (Brazil et al, 2013a(Brazil et al, , 2013b do not provide evidence for the conclusion (nor that seems to be in their focus) that psychopaths are aware of the relevant information when solving the task and do not respond to it as if they are subject to some motivational or motor-executive problems. They maintain that the findings on VM patients support their prediction that psychopaths will show impairments in response reversal task when the participants are aware of the task instructions, i.e.…”

“…In von Borries et al (2010), Brazil et al (2009), (2013a), and (2013b, it is reported that psychopaths have problems in monitoring when a performance error occurs and then to use that error information in adapting their behavior to successfully solve the task. As opposed to the original studies on instrumental learning, these more recent studies report a more specific deficit that psychopaths exhibit in comparison to non-psychopaths.…”

“…The brain region that is believed to underpin these processes involves anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and related areas (see O'Connell et al, 2007). 7 Brazil et al (2013b) leave it open whether people with psychopathic traits have deficiencies in using the relevant information because of the deficiencies in the sensory domain, motor domain or in the interaction between the two domains (see ibid., p. 8). However, Brazil (personal communication) endorses our interpretation of the studies done by him and colleagues.…”

Catecholamine Challenge Uncovers Distinct Mechanisms for Direct Versus Indirect, but Not Social Versus Non-Social, Learning

“…Consistent with the hypothesis that social learning is 40 special, studies have demonstrated that social and individual learning are at least partially 41 dissociable. Behrens and colleagues 8 demonstrated activity relating to social and individual learning 42 in dissociable neural pathways, and a number of studies have found correlations between 43 personality traits and social, but not individual, learning [9][10][11] . 44 45 Studies, such as those mentioned above, that have dissociated social and individual learning have 46 typically used a single task wherein both social and individual learning happen concurrently.…”