Psychopathy traits and reinforcement sensitivity theory: Prepulse inhibition and ERP responses

Pascalis, Vilfredo De; Scacchia, Paolo; Sommer, Kathrin; Checcucci, Costanza

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107771

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…According to the LSRP scale and PCL-R, patients with CD without comorbidities (including antisocial personality disorder), present mild psychopathic traits and increased sensitivity to rewards operationalized as an increase in 30 ms PPI. Increased PPI has been related to the reinforcement sensitivity theory as well as increased psychopathy (De Pascalis et al, 2019). The Ventral Tegmental Area modulates sensitivity to rewards, and self-administration of cocaine induces long-term potentiation-like synaptic changes in dopaminergic neurons from the Ventral Tegmental Area (Sarti et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This could explain both the primary psychopathic traits of these individuals such as lack of empathy, as well as their secondary psychopathic traits including antisocial behavior. Thus, the capacity of patients to inhibit the startle reflex could be a basic physiological expression of psychopathy, both in the general population (De Pascalis et al, 2019) and in patients with CD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the relationship between PPI and dopamine is neither simple nor unidirectional and its association with CD remains controversial (Martinez et al, 2007). Conflicting results have also been published with regards to the relationship between PPI and psychopathy (De Pascalis et al, 2019;Kumari et al, 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Cocaine Increases Sensorimotor Gating and is Related to Psychopathy

Echeverria

Benito

Fuertes-Saiz

et al. 2021

Journal of Dual Diagnosis

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Objective: Prepulse inhibition regulates sensorimotor gating and is a marker of vulnerability to certain disorders. We compared prepulse inhibition, psychopathy, and sensitivity to punishment and reward in patients with cocaine-related disorder without psychiatric comorbidities and a control group. Methods: This was an observational study of a sample of 22 male cases with cocaine-related disorder and 22 healthy male controls. We used the Psychiatric Research Interview for Substance and Mental Disorders and Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview; the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire; and the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale and Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. Prepulse inhibition was evaluated at 30, 60, and 120 ms. Results: Cocaine-related disorder group had a higher overall score (t ¼ 12.556, p ¼ .001) and primary psychopathy score (t ¼ 3.750, p ¼ .001) on Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, a higher score on both Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised factors, sensitivity to rewards (t ¼ 3.076, p ¼ .005) and prepulse inhibition at 30 ms (t ¼ 2.859, p ¼ .008). Conclusions: Cocaine use in patients without psychiatric comorbidities seems to increase sensorimotor gating. Therefore, these patients likely have an increased sensitivity to rewards, causing them to focus more on cocaine-boosting stimuli, thus explaining the psychopathic traits of these individuals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cocaine Increases Sensorimotor Gating and is Related to Psychopathy

Echeverria

Benito

Fuertes-Saiz

et al. 2021

Journal of Dual Diagnosis

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“…As a general view, we observe that the inhibitory regulation effect was reflected both in the GFP and IRP responses, with PPI showing significantly reduced amplitudes compared to PPF. PPI and PPF neural responses have been extensively addressed, especially in the electrophysiology literature [ 22 , 29 , 31 , 32 ]. Specifically, long-term studies have shown the functionality of PPI mechanism as a diminishment of the startle reflex relative to pulse-alone response, either by evaluating the muscular [ 35 , 36 ] or neural activity [ 31 , 32 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…PPI and PPF neural responses have been extensively addressed, especially in the electrophysiology literature [ 22 , 29 , 31 , 32 ]. Specifically, long-term studies have shown the functionality of PPI mechanism as a diminishment of the startle reflex relative to pulse-alone response, either by evaluating the muscular [ 35 , 36 ] or neural activity [ 31 , 32 ]. Interestingly, the condition differences are in line with evidence indicating that PPI and PPF are independent processes [ 20 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instantaneous radiated power of brain activity: application to prepulse inhibition and facilitation for body dysmorphic disorder

et al. 2021

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Background Global measures of neuronal activity embrace the advantage of a univariate, holistic and unique description of brain activity, reducing the spatial dimensions of electroencephalography (EEG) analysis at the cost of lower precision in localizing effects. In this work, the instantaneous radiated power (IRP) is proposed as a new whole-brain descriptor, reflecting the cortical activity from an exclusively electromagnetic perspective. Considering that the brain consists of multiple elementary dipoles, the whole-brain IRP takes into account the radiational contribution of all cortical sources. Unlike conventional EEG analyses that evaluate a large number of scalp or source locations, IRP reflects a whole-brain, event-related measure and forces the analysis to focus on a single time-series, thus efficiently reducing the EEG spatial dimensions and multiple comparisons. Results To apply the developed methodology in real EEG data, two groups (25 controls vs 30 body dysmorphic disorder, BDD, patients) were matched for age and sex and tested in a prepulse inhibition (PPI) and facilitation (PPF) paradigm. Two global brain descriptors were extracted for between-groups and between-conditions comparison purposes, namely the global field power (GFP) and the whole-brain IRP. Results showed that IRP can replicate the expected condition differences (with PPF being greater than PPI responses), exhibiting also reduced levels in BDD compared to control group overall. There were also similar outcomes using GFP and IRP, suggesting consistency between the two measures. Finally, regression analysis showed that the PPI-related IRP (during N100 time-window) is negatively correlated with BDD psychometric scores. Conclusions Investigating the brain activity with IRP significantly reduces the data dimensionality, giving insights about global brain synchronization and strength. We conclude that IRP can replicate the existing evidence regarding sensorimotor gating effects, revealing also group electrophysiological alterations. Finally, electrophysiological IRP responses exhibited correlations with BDD psychometrics, potentially useful as supplementary tool in BDD symptomatology.

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Profile and Assessment of Psychopathy

Vitale

2022

Dangerous Behavior in Clinical and Forensic Psychology

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Psychopathy traits and reinforcement sensitivity theory: Prepulse inhibition and ERP responses

Cited by 11 publications

References 104 publications

Cocaine Increases Sensorimotor Gating and is Related to Psychopathy

Cocaine Increases Sensorimotor Gating and is Related to Psychopathy

Instantaneous radiated power of brain activity: application to prepulse inhibition and facilitation for body dysmorphic disorder

Profile and Assessment of Psychopathy

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