Evoked potential models of psychopathy: a critical evaluation

Raine (1989) reviewed all evoked potential studies carried out to date and developed an information-processing model of psychopathy from the findings of these studies. Jutai (1989) and Howard (1989) have outlined conceptual and empirical criticism of this model and a reply is made to these comments. Some are found to be invalid, while acceptance of others was not found to necessitate a rejection of the model. However, caveats made in the original paper are reiterated here. The cortical immaturity model outlined by Jutai (1989) as a counter-explanation to that proposed by Raine (1989) is evaluated, and criticisms of this alternative are outlined. It is argued that further progress to a more complete understanding of of psychopathy will be achieved by empirically testing these and other models.