Dissociable relations between amygdala subregional networks and psychopathy trait dimensions in conduct‐disordered juvenile offenders |
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| Authors: | Moji Aghajani Olivier F Colins Eduard T Klapwijk Ilya M Veer Henrik Andershed Arne Popma Nic J van der Wee Robert RJM Vermeiren |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands;2. Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, the Netherlands;3. Department of PsychiatryVU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands;4. School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, Orebro University, Orebro, Sweden;5. Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universit?tsmedizin, Berlin, Germany;6. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands;7. Faculty of Law, Leiden University, Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, Leiden, the Netherlands;8. Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Psychopathy is a serious psychiatric phenomenon characterized by a pathological constellation of affective (e.g., callous, unemotional), interpersonal (e.g., manipulative, egocentric), and behavioral (e.g., impulsive, irresponsible) personality traits. Though amygdala subregional defects are suggested in psychopathy, the functionality and connectivity of different amygdala subnuclei is typically disregarded in neurocircuit‐level analyses of psychopathic personality. Hence, little is known of how amygdala subregional networks may contribute to psychopathy and its underlying trait assemblies in severely antisocial people. We addressed this important issue by uniquely examining the intrinsic functional connectivity of basolateral (BLA) and centromedial (CMA) amygdala networks in relation to affective, interpersonal, and behavioral traits of psychopathy, in conduct‐disordered juveniles with a history of serious delinquency (N = 50, mean age = 16.83 ± 1.32). As predicted, amygdalar connectivity profiles exhibited dissociable relations with different traits of psychopathy. Interpersonal psychopathic traits not only related to increased connectivity of BLA and CMA with a corticostriatal network formation accommodating reward processing, but also predicted stronger CMA connectivity with a network of cortical midline structures supporting sociocognitive processes. In contrast, affective psychopathic traits related to diminished CMA connectivity with a frontolimbic network serving salience processing and affective responding. Finally, behavioral psychopathic traits related to heightened BLA connectivity with a frontoparietal cluster implicated in regulatory executive functioning. We suggest that these trait‐specific shifts in amygdalar connectivity could be particularly relevant to the psychopathic phenotype, as they may fuel a self‐centered, emotionally cold, and behaviorally disinhibited profile. Hum Brain Mapp 37:4017–4033, 2016. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
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| Keywords: | amygdala psychopathy conduct disorder intrinsic functional connectivity |
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