Volman, I;
Katinka Louise von Borries, A;
Hendrik Bulten, B;
Jan Verkes, R;
Toni, I;
Roelofs, K;
(2016)
Testosterone Modulates Altered Prefrontal Control of Emotional Actions in Psychopathic Offenders.
eNeuro
, 3
(1)
, Article e0107-15.2016. 10.1523/ENEURO.0107-15.2016.
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Abstract
Psychopathic individuals are notorious for their controlled goal-directed aggressive behavior. Yet, during social challenges, they often show uncontrolled emotional behavior. Healthy individuals can control their social emotional behavior through anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) downregulation of neural activity in the amygdala, with testosterone modulating aPFC–amygdala coupling. This study tests whether individual differences in this neuroendocrine system relate to the paradoxical lack of emotional control observed in human psychopathic offenders. Emotional control was operationalized with an fMRI-adapted approach–avoidance task requiring rule-driven control over rapid emotional responses. Fifteen psychopathic offenders and 19 matched healthy control subjects made approaching and avoiding movements in response to emotional faces. Control of social emotional behavior was required during affect-incongruent trials, when participants had to override affect-congruent, automatic action tendencies and select the opposite response. Psychopathic offenders showed less control-related aPFC activity and aPFC–amygdala coupling during trials requiring control of emotional actions, when compared with healthy control subjects. This pattern was particularly pronounced in psychopathic individuals with high endogenous testosterone levels. These findings suggest that reduced prefrontal coordination underlies reduced behavioral control in psychopathic offenders during emotionally provoking situations. Even though the modest sample size warrants replication, the modulatory role of endogenous testosterone on the aPFC–amygdala circuit suggests a neurobiological substrate of individual differences that is relevant for the advancement of treatment and the reduction of recidivism.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Testosterone Modulates Altered Prefrontal Control of Emotional Actions in Psychopathic Offenders |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1523/ENEURO.0107-15.2016 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0107-15.2016 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2016 Volman et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. |
| Keywords: | amygdala; connectivity; emotion; fMRI; prefrontal; psychopathy |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1537474 |
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