The Association Between P3 Amplitude at Age 11 and Criminal Offending at Age 23

Reduced P3 amplitude to targets is an information-processing deficit associated with adult antisocial behavior and may reflect dysfunction of the temporal-parietal junction. This study aims to examine whether this deficit precedes criminal offending. From a birth cohort of 1,795 children, 73 individuals who become criminal offenders at age 23 and 123 noncriminal individuals were assessed on P3 amplitude. The two groups did not differ on gender, ethnicity, and social adversity. P3 amplitude was measured over the temporal-parietal junction during a visual continuous performance task at age 11, together with antisocial behavior. Criminal convictions were assessed at age 23. Reduced P3 amplitude at age 11 was associated with increased antisocial behavior at age 11. Criminal offenders showed significantly reduced P3 amplitudes to target stimuli compared to controls. Findings remained significant after controlling for antisocial behavior and hyperactivity at age 11 and alcoholism at age 23. P3 deficits at age 11 are associated with adult crime at age 23, suggesting that reduced P3 may be an early neurobiological marker for cognitive and affective processes subserved by the temporal-parietal junction that place a child at risk for adult crime.

[1]  S. Mednick,et al.  Cohort profile: The Mauritius Child Health Project. , 2010, International journal of epidemiology.

[2]  John D. E. Gabrieli,et al.  Shared and selective neural correlates of inhibition, facilitation, and shifting processes during executive control , 2010, NeuroImage.

[3]  S. Mednick,et al.  Association of poor childhood fear conditioning and adult crime. , 2010, The American journal of psychiatry.

[4]  A. Raine,et al.  P3 event-related potential impairments in antisocial and psychopathic individuals: A meta-analysis , 2009, Biological Psychology.

[5]  Jacques Felblinger,et al.  Automated cortical projection of EEG sensors: Anatomical correlation via the international 10–10 system , 2009, NeuroImage.

[6]  C. Patrick,et al.  Violent offending predicts P300 amplitude. , 2007, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[7]  J. Decety,et al.  The Role of the Right Temporoparietal Junction in Social Interaction: How Low-Level Computational Processes Contribute to Meta-Cognition , 2007, The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry.

[8]  J. Polich.  Updating P300: An integrative theory of P3a and P3b , 2007, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[9]  Michael J. Kofler,et al.  Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Behavioral Inhibition: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Stop-signal Paradigm , 2007, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[10]  Modeling multiple neuromagnetic activities during the visual infrequent target detection processing , 2007 .

[11]  G. Harris,et al.  Response inhibition in psychopathy: The frontal N2 and P3 , 2007, Neuroscience Letters.

[12]  C. Patrick,et al.  Genes mediate the association between P3 amplitude and externalizing disorders. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[13]  Adrian Raine,et al.  Neural foundations to moral reasoning and antisocial behavior. , 2006, Social cognitive and affective neuroscience.

[14]  W. Iacono,et al.  Heritability of P300 amplitude development from adolescence to adulthood. , 2006, Psychophysiology.

[15]  K. Kiehl,et al.  Brain potentials implicate temporal lobe abnormalities in criminal psychopaths. , 2006, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[16]  J. Polich,et al.  Neuropsychology and neuropharmacology of P3a and P3b. , 2006, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[17]  C. Patrick,et al.  P300 amplitude as an indicator of externalizing in adolescent males. , 2006, Psychophysiology.

[18]  K. Blair,et al.  The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain , 2005 .

[19]  Uta Frith,et al.  Theory of mind , 2001, Current Biology.

[20]  P. Philippot,et al.  Emotional deficit in subjects with psychopathic tendencies as assessed by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2: an event-related potentials study , 2004, Neuroscience Letters.

[21]  Masako Okamoto,et al.  Three-dimensional probabilistic anatomical cranio-cerebral correlation via the international 10–20 system oriented for transcranial functional brain mapping , 2004, NeuroImage.

[22]  Estibaliz Arce,et al.  Hippocampal structural asymmetry in unsuccessful psychopaths , 2004, Biological Psychiatry.

[23]  Todd Lencz,et al.  Corpus callosum abnormalities in psychopathic antisocial individuals. , 2003, Archives of general psychiatry.

[24]  R Saxe,et al.  People thinking about thinking people The role of the temporo-parietal junction in “theory of mind” , 2003, NeuroImage.

[25]  Matt McGue,et al.  Substance use disorders, externalizing psychopathology, and P300 event-related potential amplitude. , 2003, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[26]  Jorge Moll,et al.  Morals and the human brain: a working model. , 2003, Neuroreport.

[27]  J. Polich.  Theoretical Overview of P3a and P3b , 2003 .

[28]  J. Polich.  Detection of change : event-related potential and fMRI findings , 2003 .

[29]  D. Senkowski,et al.  Effects of task difficulty on evoked gamma activity and ERPs in a visual discrimination task , 2002, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[30]  W. Iacono,et al.  P3 event-related potential amplitude and the risk for disinhibitory disorders in adolescent boys. , 2002, Archives of general psychiatry.

[31]  C. Reynolds,et al.  The continuous performance test: a window on the neural substrates for attention? , 2002, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology.

[32]  P. Venables,et al.  Invariance of the MAST across religious groups. , 2001, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[33]  S. Mednick,et al.  Early educational and health enrichment at age 3-5 years is associated with increased autonomic and central nervous system arousal and orienting at age 11 years: evidence from the Mauritius Child Health Project. , 2001, Psychophysiology.

[34]  J. Kwon,et al.  Frontal P300 Decrement and Executive Dysfunction in Adolescents with Conduct Problems , 2001, Child psychiatry and human development.

[35]  K. Kiehl,et al.  An event-related fMRI study of visual and auditory oddball tasks , 2001 .

[36]  John Rohrbaugh,et al.  Frontal P300 decrements, alcohol dependence, and antisocial personality disorder , 2000, Biological Psychiatry.

[37]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study , 1999, Nature Neuroscience.

[38]  V. Hesselbrock,et al.  P300 decrements in teenagers with conduct problems: implications for substance abuse risk and brain development , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[39]  V. Hesselbrock,et al.  Subtypes of Family History and Conduct Disorder: Effects on P300 During the Stroop Test , 1999, Neuropsychopharmacology.

[40]  John J McDonald,et al.  Reduced P300 responses in criminal psychopaths during a visual oddball task , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[41]  H. Jasper,et al.  The ten-twenty electrode system of the International Federation. The International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. , 1999, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology. Supplement.

[42]  S. Mednick,et al.  Fearlessness, stimulation-seeking, and large body size at age 3 years as early predispositions to childhood aggression at age 11 years. , 1998, Archives of general psychiatry.

[43]  D. Boomsma,et al.  Individual differences in P300 amplitude: a genetic study in adolescent twins , 1998, Biological Psychology.

[44]  D. Boomsma,et al.  Longitudinal Study of Genetic Influences on ERP-P3 During Childhood , 1998 .

[45]  S. Mednick,et al.  Low resting heart rate at age 3 years predisposes to aggression at age 11 years: evidence from the Mauritius Child Health Project. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[46]  Adrian Raine,et al.  Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography , 1997, Biological Psychiatry.

[47]  M K McGue,et al.  P300 event-related potential heritability in monozygotic and dizygotic twins. , 1997, Psychophysiology.

[48]  R. Blair,et al.  A cognitive developmental approach to morality: investigating the psychopath , 1995, Cognition.

[49]  A. G. Baker,et al.  Effects of reward and response costs on inhibition in ADHD children. , 1995, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[50]  S A Mednick,et al.  Birth complications combined with early maternal rejection at age 1 year predispose to violent crime at age 18 years. , 1994, Archives of general psychiatry.

[51]  M. Buchsbaum,et al.  Selective reductions in prefrontal glucose metabolism in murderers , 1994, Biological Psychiatry.

[52]  T. Moffitt.  Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: a developmental taxonomy. , 1993, Psychological review.

[53]  T. Achenbach.  Manual for the child behavior checklist/4-18 and 1991 profile , 1991 .

[54]  J. Biederman,et al.  Comorbidity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with conduct, depressive, anxiety, and other disorders. , 1991, The American journal of psychiatry.

[55]  P. Venables,et al.  Relationships between N1, P300, and contingent negative variation recorded at age 15 and criminal behavior at age 24. , 1990, Psychophysiology.

[56]  P. Lachenbruch.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.) , 1989 .

[57]  P. Pocock,et al.  Late components of auditory event-related potentials to eight equiprobable stimuli in a target detection task. , 1989, Psychophysiology.

[58]  F. Verhulst,et al.  Replication of empirically derived syndromes as a basis for taxonomy of child/adolescent psychopathology , 1989, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[59]  E. Donchin,et al.  Is the P300 component a manifestation of context updating? , 1988, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[60]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  The relation of empathy to aggressive and externalizing/antisocial behavior. , 1988, Psychological bulletin.

[61]  J. Polich,et al.  Task difficulty, probability, and inter-stimulus interval as determinants of P300 from auditory stimuli. , 1987, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[62]  C. Batson,et al.  Adults' emotional reactions to the distress of others. , 1987 .

[63]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  Empathy and its development , 1987 .

[64]  G. Logan,et al.  On the ability to inhibit simple and choice reaction time responses: a model and a method. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[65]  C. Edelbrock,et al.  Manual for the Child: Behavior Checklist and Revised Child Behavior Profile , 1983 .

[66]  P. Venables.  Psychophysiology and Psychometrics , 1978 .

[67]  M. Selzer.  The Michigan alcoholism screening test: the quest for a new diagnostic instrument. , 1971, The American journal of psychiatry.