Adolescent psychopathy and the five factor model: domain and facet analysis

Given the consideration of callousness as a specifier for Conduct Disorder in the DSM-V, it seems imperative that researchers continue to investigate this personality style in adolescents to determine both its applicability and utility. The present study examined the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI; Andershed et al. 2002) and the Interpersonal Adjective Scale Revised-Big 5 (IASR-B5; Trapnell and Wiggins 1990a, b) psychopathy scales in relation to the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. Using a sample of adolescent offenders (N  = 145), the YPI and IASR-B5 psychopathy scales showed adequate reliability and strong inverse bivariate relations with the FFM domains of Agreeableness (−A) and Conscientiousness (−C). Multivariate analyses, at the facet level, revealed that Tendermindedness (−A) and Assertiveness (+E) explained the association between FFM facets and the YPI, whereas Altruism (−A), Modesty (−A), Straightforwardness (−A), Assertiveness (+E), Warmth (−E), and Deliberation (+C) all uniquely contributed to the IASR-B5 psychopathy scale. Both measures were linked with general and violent recidivism. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in terms of the use of personality to help describe conduct problem youth and the need for future research in this important area

A view behind the mask of sanity: meta-analysis of aberrant brain activity in psychopaths

Psychopathy is a disorder of high public concern because it predicts violence and offense recidivism. Recent brain imaging studies suggest abnormal brain activity underlying psychopathic behavior. No reliable pattern of altered neural activity has been disclosed so far. This study sought to identify consistent changes of brain activity in psychopaths and to investigate whether these could explain known psychopathology. First, we used activation likelihood estimation (p < 0.05, corrected) to meta-analyze brain activation changes associated with psychopathy across 28 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies reporting 753 foci from 155 experiments. Second, we characterized the ensuing regions functionally by employing metadata of a large-scale neuroimaging database (p < 0.05, corrected). Psychopathy was consistently associated with decreased brain activity in the right laterobasal amygdala, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and bilaterally in the lateral prefrontal cortex. A robust increase of activity was observed in the fronto-insular cortex on both hemispheres. Data-driven functional characterization revealed associations with semantic language processing (left lateral prefrontal and fronto-insular cortex), action execution and pain processing (right lateral prefrontal and left fronto-insular), social cognition (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), and emotional as well as cognitive reward processing (right amygdala and fronto-insular cortex). Aberrant brain activity related to psychopathy is located in prefrontal, insular, and limbic regions. Physiological mental functions fulfilled by these brain regions correspond to disturbed behavioral patterns pathognomonic for psychopathy. Hence, aberrant brain activity may not just be an epiphenomenon of psychopathy but directly related to the psychopathology of this disorder