Archival ReportIncreased Volume of the Striatum in Psychopathic Individuals
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
References (50)
- et al.
Limbic abnormalities in affective processing by criminal psychopaths as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging
Biol Psychiatry
(2001) - et al.
Brain anatomy of persistent violent offenders: More rather than less
Psychiatry Res
(2008) - et al.
Hippocampal structural asymmetry in unsuccessful psychopaths
Biol Psychiatry
(2004) - et al.
Passive avoidance learning in individuals with psychopathy: Modulation by reward but not by punishment
Pers Individ Dif
(2004) - et al.
Volumetric structural brain abnormalities in men with schizophrenia or antisocial personality disorder
Behav Brain Res
(2006) - et al.
Sex differences in striatal dopamine release in healthy adults
Biol Psychiatry
(2006) - et al.
The assessment of psychopathy in male and female noncriminals: Reliability and validity
Pers Individ Dif
(1996) - et al.
Volume reduction in prefrontal gray matter in unsuccessful criminal psychopaths
Biol Psychiatry
(2005) Measuring handedness with questionnaires
Neuropsychologia
(1977)- et al.
Training and quality assurance with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I/P)
Psychiatry Res
(1998)
Caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus volume in schizophrenia
Psychiatry Res
Divergent effects of genetic variation in endocannabinoid signaling on human threat- and reward-related brain function
Biol Psychiatry
Reward representations and reward-related learning in the human brain: Insights from neuroimaging
Curr Opin Neurobiol
Neural and behavioral responses to threat in men with a history of serious violence and schizophrenia or antisocial personality disorder
Schizophr Res
The amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in morality and psychopathy
Trends Cogn Sci
Emotion and motivation: The role of the amygdala, ventral striatum, and prefrontal cortex
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
Atypical empathic responses in adolescents with aggressive conduct disorder: A functional MRI investigation
Biol Psychol
Abnormal ventromedial prefrontal cortex function in children with psychopathic traits during reversal learning
Arch Gen Psychiatry
Reduced prefrontal gray matter volume and reduced autonomic activity in antisocial personality disorder
Arch Gen Psychiatry
Corpus callosum abnormalities in psychopathic antisocial individuals
Arch Gen Psychiatry
Manual for the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised
A neural correlate of reward-based behavioral learning in caudate nucleus: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of a stochastic decision task
J Neurosci
Passive avoidance learning in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders
J Abnorm Psychol
Altered striatal dopamine re-uptake site densities in habitually violent and non-violent alcoholics
Nat Med
Brain SPECT findings and aggressiveness
Ann Clin Psychiatry
Cited by (139)
Larger striatal volume is associated with increased adult psychopathy
2022, Journal of Psychiatric ResearchThe cognitive, affective and somatic empathy scales for adults
2022, Personality and Individual Differences