The Empathic Brain of Psychopaths: From Social Science to Neuroscience in Empathy

Empathy is a crucial human ability, because of its importance to prosocial behavior, and for moral development. A deficit in empathic abilities, especially affective empathy, is thought to play an important role in psychopathic personality. Empathic abilities have traditionally been studied within the social and behavioral sciences using behavioral methods, but recent work in neuroscience has begun to elucidate the neural underpinnings of empathic processing in relation to psychopathy. In this review, current knowledge in the social neuroscience of empathy is discussed and a comprehensive view of the neuronal mechanisms that underlie empathy in psychopathic personality is provided. Furthermore, it will be argued that using classification based on overt behavior, we risk failin

Pathways to Violence in Schizophrenia : The role of antisocial personality, substance misuse, delusions, and delusional distress

There is a long held general belief in society that persons with a major mental disorder are dangerous. The media play an important role in the maintenance of this belief by highlighting cases of violent acts by mentally disordered individuals. Though, during the seventies, this belief became more and more criticized. Studies on the relation between severe mental illness and (violent) criminal offending found no relation between the two. In an extensive research on violent crime by ‘mentally abnormal offenders’ in Germany, Häfner and Böker (1973) concluded that “if we define the dangerousness of the mentally abnormal as the probability of their committing a violent crime, then our findings show that this does not exceed the dangerousness of the legally responsible adult population as a whole” (p. 284). From The Baxstrom Studies (Cocozza & Steadman, 1974), we learned that psychiatry failed in the prediction of dangerousness in the mentally ill. Similarly, in the Netherlands, Tuinier (1989) wrote his dissertation on a field study on the relation between psychiatric syndrome and criminality. He also concluded that psychiatric syndromes (except for abuse disorders) have no relation with criminal offending

Dark personality traits and deception, and the short dark tetrad (SD4) as integrity screening instrument

Dark personality traits (Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Sadism) have been associated with aversive, unethical, and criminal conduct. Concise measurement tools such as the Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) are popular, because they lend themselves as screening instruments. As such, the scores on these scales are used in various decision-making contexts, and they can have considerable effects on the lives of people who display an unfortunate scoring pattern. The present study explored to what extent high SD4 scores are actually predictive of deceptive behaviour in a matrix puzzle task, in a general community sample (N = 751). Results indicated that 9.9% of participants lied, that is, exaggerated their performance on the matrix task, hoping to increase their likelihood of financial reward. These cheating participants scored higher on all four dark traits. Nonetheless, the overlap between SD4 distributions made it impossible to determine cut-off scores in an attempt to consider scores as actual predictors of deception proneness. When framed in likelihoods, some scores can be diagnostic of deception proneness. Particularly in the context of statement validity assessment, characterized by tools with modest to poor accuracy, SD4 scores may add to diagnostic accuracy.</p

Psychopathy as a predisposition to lie hedonistically

Excessive lying is generally considered to be a hallmark of psychopathy. Meanwhile, the empirical evidence for the association between psychopathy and lying is somewhat limited. In the present study, non-clinical volunteers completed a measure of psychopathy, and were then brought in an experimental situation (a puzzle task) in which they could opt to lie for potential personal gain (i.e. monetary reward). Findings suggest that 19% of participants (i.e. 31 out of 166) lied about their performance in the puzzle task, thus increasing their likelihood of gaining additional reward. These lying participants scored significantly higher on psychopathy than did their honest peers. Thus, the findings support the hypothesis that psychopathy is characterised by deceitful behaviour. Particularly, psychopathic boldness was associated with lying.</p

When Kinks Come to Life: An Exploration of Paraphilic Concordance and Underlying Mediators

Paraphilia is defined as a condition in which sexual excitement relies on fantasizing about and / or participating in unusual sexual behavior. Although recent studies have assessed the concordance between paraphilic interests and paraphilic behaviors, few studies have studied which individual traits and demographics predict engaging in paraphilic behaviors, or indeed, the level of concordance between arousal and behavior. The current study replicated and expanded Joyal and Carpentier (2022). We assessed concordance between paraphilic arousal and behavior. Further, we assessed the impact of Dark Tetrad traits, impulsivity, social desirability and demographic variables on engaging in paraphilic behaviors using self-report questionnaires in a sample from the general population and FetLife. Finally, we were interested in whether these individual differences moderated the concordance between arousal and behavior. Results indicated high concordance between paraphilic arousal and behavior for all paraphilias except pedophilia and hebephilia. Younger, male participants showed higher were more likely to engage in various paraphilias than women and older participants. Machiavellianism was linked with lower paraphilic behavior, particularly impulsive or risky ones. Psychopathy predicted engaging in more deviant or illegal paraphilias, whereas sadism only showed an association for engaging in frotteurism and narcissism was not a predictor for engaging in any paraphilia. For several paraphilias, individual traits moderated the effect of arousal on behavior. Implications of these findings and future directions are discussed

Neuroscience in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue is dedicated to the potential role of neuroscience in forensic psychiatry and psychology. Although neuroscientific insights are increasingly incorporated in clinical practice, they received less attention in forensic mental healthcare and in the forensic mental health literature. In the last decade there has been an increased interest in using neuroscientific knowledge in the assessment and treatment of psychopathology related to antisocial and violent behavior. Consequently, neuroscientific methods may, for example, be used in detecting psychiatric problems in defendants, one of the topics covered by the scientific field of neurolaw. This current article introduces this special issue by providing an introduction to the neurobiology of antisocial and criminal behavior and will set off discussing how neuroscientific insights may be used in forensic clinical practice

The effect of HD-tDCS on brain oscillations and frontal synchronicity during resting-state EEG in violent offenders with a substance dependence

Violence is a major problem in our society and therefore research into the neural underpinnings of aggression has grown exponentially. Although in the past decade the biological underpinnings of aggressive behavior have been examined, research on neural oscillations in violent offenders during resting-state electroencephalography (rsEEG) remains scarce. In this study we aimed to investigate the effect of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) on frontal theta, alpha and beta frequency power, asymmetrical frontal activity, and frontal synchronicity in violent offenders. Fifty male violent forensic patients diagnosed with a substance dependence were included in a double-blind sham-controlled randomized study. The patients received 20 minutes of HD-tDCS two times a day on five consecutive days. Before and after the intervention, the patients underwent a rsEEG task. Results showed no effect of HD-tDCS on the power in the different frequency bands. Also, no increase in asymmetrical activity was found. However, we found increased synchronicity in frontal regions in the alpha and beta frequency bands indicating enhanced connectivity in frontal brain regions as a result of the HD-tDCS-intervention. This study has enhanced our understanding of the neural underpinnings of aggression and violence, pointing to the importance of alpha and beta frequency bands and their connectivity in frontal brain regions. Although future studies should further investigate the complex neural underpinnings of aggression in different populations and using whole-brain connectivity, it can be suggested with caution, that HD-tDCS could be an innovative method to regain frontal synchronicity in neurorehabilitation.</p

Sensation seeking and its relationship with psychopathic traits, impulsivity and aggression: a validation of the Dutch Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS)

Sensation seeking is a personality trait that manifests as a preference for change, variety and novelty. Sensation seeking has been positively associated with different externalising behaviours. However, its associations with psychopathic traits, impulsivity and aggression are unclear. These associations were examined via the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) using individuals from the general population and forensic patients. The results show that the BSSS has good psychometric properties, including test-retest reliability and a four-factor structure. Additionally, the results support associations between sensation seeking and psychopathic traits, impulsivity and total scores of aggression but revealed no specific associations with different types of aggression (e.g. proactive and reactive). The Dutch BSSS is a valuable tool for assessing sensation seeking in both the general population and forensic patients. Future research should further examine its utility and explore the role of sensation seeking in antisocial conduct