Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 67, Issue 1, 1 January 2010, Pages 52-58
Biological Psychiatry

Archival Report
Increased Volume of the Striatum in Psychopathic Individuals

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.06.018Get rights and content

Background

The corpus striatum, comprised of the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus, plays an important role in reward processing and may be involved in the pathophysiology of antisocial behavior. Few studies have explored whether differences are present in the striatum of antisocial individuals. Here, we examine the structure of the striatum in relation to psychopathy.

Methods

Using a case-control design, we examined the volume of the striatum in psychopathic individuals compared with control subjects matched for age, sex, ethnicity, and substance dependence. Twenty-two psychopathic individuals assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and 22 comparison subjects underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. Volumes of the left and right lenticular nucleus (putamen and globus pallidus), caudate head, and caudate body were assessed and the psychopathic and control groups were compared.

Results

Psychopathic individuals showed a 9.6% increase in striatum volumes. Analyses of subfactors of psychopathy revealed that caudate body volumes were primarily associated with the interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy, while caudate head volumes were primarily associated with the impulsive, stimulation-seeking features.

Conclusions

These findings provide new evidence for differences in the striatum of psychopathic individuals. This structural difference may partially underlie the reward-seeking and decision-making deficits associated with psychopathy.

Section snippets

Participants

Given the higher prevalence rates of psychopathy in men than women (21, 22), the present study focused primarily on male subjects to increase the likelihood of enrolling participants scoring high in psychopathy. Seventy-seven male subjects and nine female subjects were recruited from five temporary employment agencies (3). Participants were unselected, except for the following exclusion criteria: age younger than 21 years or older than 45 years, nonfluency in English, history of epilepsy,

Striatum Structure

Groups were found to significantly differ on total striatum volume [F(1,42) = 6.3, η2 = .13, p = .016] (Figure 2). An omnibus MANOVA on the six subregions of the striatum (left and right lenticular nucleus, caudate head, and caudate body) indicated an overall group difference [F(6,37) = 2.7, η2 = .30; p < .03]. Follow-up univariate F tests indicated that psychopathic individuals had increased left and right lenticular nuclei and a trend for a larger right caudate body (Table 2).

Relationships between Striatal Measures and Factors of Psychopathy

To examine the

Discussion

To our knowledge, this study establishes for the first time the existence of a structural difference in the striatum of psychopathic individuals. This group had a 9.6% increase in the volume of the striatum compared with control subjects, a large effect size corresponding to d = .76. Within the subregions, the left and right lenticular nuclei were 9.4% and 10.0% larger, respectively. Dimensional, regression analyses of the subfactors of psychopathy revealed that volumes of the lenticular nuclei

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