Dissociable effects of psychopathic traits on cortical and subcortical visual pathways during facial emotion processing: An ERP study on the N170 |
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| Authors: | Pedro R. Almeida Fernando Ferreira‐Santos Joana B. Vieira Pedro S. Moreira Fernando Barbosa João Marques‐Teixeira |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Laboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, , Porto, Portugal;2. School of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Porto, , Porto, Portugal;3. Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, , Porto, Portugal |
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| Abstract: | This study examined the relation between psychopathic traits and the brain response to facial emotion by analyzing the N170 component of the ERP. Fifty‐four healthy participants were assessed for psychopathic traits and exposed to images of emotional and neutral faces with varying spatial frequency content. The N170 was modulated by the emotional expressions, irrespective of psychopathic traits. Fearless dominance was associated with a reduced N170, driven by the low spatial frequency components of the stimuli, and dependent on the tectopulvinar visual pathway. Conversely, coldheartedness was related to overall enhanced N170, suggesting mediation by geniculostriate processing. Results suggest that different dimensions of psychopathy are related to distinct facial emotion processing mechanisms and support the existence of both amygdala deficits and compensatory engagement of cortical structures for emotional processing in psychopathy. |
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| Keywords: | Psychopathic traits N170 Facial emotion |
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