Emotion and psychopathy: startling new insights.

Abnormal affective response in psychopaths is conceptualized within a broad theory of emotion that emphasizes reciprocal appetitive and defensive motivational systems. The startle response is proposed as a specific measure of the directional component of emotional activation. I review the literature that indicates that criminal psychopaths do not show the expected potentiation of the startle reflex that normally occurs during processing of aversive stimuli such as unpleasant photographs or punishment cues. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that this deviant response pattern is specific to individuals who display the classic affective symptoms of psychopathy. The core emotional deviation in psychopathy could be a deficit in fear response, which is defined as a failure of aversive cues to prime normal defensive actions. This emotional deficit may represent an extreme variant of normal temperament.

[1]  M. Bradley,et al.  Startle reflex modification: emotion or attention? , 1990, Psychophysiology.

[2]  G A Miller,et al.  Digital filtering: background and tutorial for psychophysiologists. , 1992, Psychophysiology.

[3]  Stevens S. Smith,et al.  Evaluating the construct validity of psychopathy in black and white male inmates: three preliminary studies. , 1990, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[4]  C. Patrick,et al.  Psychopathy, Threat, and Polygraph Test Accuracy , 1989 .

[5]  K. Craig,et al.  Genuine, suppressed and faked facial behavior during exacerbation of chronic low back pain , 1991, Pain.

[6]  Mark K. Greenwald,et al.  Emotional learning, hedonic change, and the startle probe. , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[7]  C. Patrick,et al.  Startle potentiation during anticipation of a noxious stimulus: active versus passive response sets. , 1995, Psychophysiology.

[8]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion and psychopathology: a startle probe analysis. , 1993, Progress in experimental personality & psychopathology research.

[9]  S. Hackley,et al.  An evaluation of the automaticity of sensory processing using event-related potentials and brain-stem reflexes. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[10]  F. J. Schmauk.  Punishment, arousal, and avoidance learning in sociopaths. , 1970, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[11]  D. Lykken,et al.  The psychopath and the lie detector. , 1978, Psychophysiology.

[12]  N. Fox,et al.  Patterns of brain electrical activity during facial signs of emotion in 10-month-old infants. , 1988 .

[13]  E. Cook,et al.  Fearfulness and startle potentiation during aversive visual stimuli. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[14]  Stephen C. P. Wong,et al.  Electrodermal and Cardiovascular Evidence of a Coping Response in Psychopaths , 1990 .

[15]  Frances K. Graham,et al.  Blink reflex modification by selective attention: Evidence for the modulation of ‘automatic’ processing , 1985, Biological Psychology.

[16]  M. Davis,et al.  Footshock-induced sensitization of electrically elicited startle reflexes. , 1989, Behavioral neuroscience.

[17]  David T. Lykken,et al.  A Tremor in the Blood: Uses and Abuses of the Lie Detector , 1980 .

[18]  P. Ekman,et al.  Facial Expressions of Emotion , 1979 .

[19]  P. Lang,et al.  Emotional imagery in simple and social phobia: fear versus anxiety. , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[20]  M. Bradley,et al.  Pictures as prepulse: attention and emotion in startle modification. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[21]  Hervey Cleckley,et al.  The Mask of Sanity , 1956 .

[22]  J. Newman,et al.  Passive avoidance in syndromes of disinhibition: psychopathy and extraversion. , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[23]  M. Davis,et al.  Enhancement of acoustic startle by electrical stimulation of the amygdala. , 1988, Behavioral neuroscience.

[24]  N. Frijda,et al.  Modulation of the acoustic startle response by film-induced fear and sexual arousal. , 1991, Psychophysiology.

[25]  E. Cook,et al.  Affective individual differences and startle reflex modulation. , 1991, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[26]  P. Lang,et al.  A FEAR SURVEY SCHEDULE FOR USE IN BEHAVIOUR THERAPY. , 1964, Behaviour research and therapy.

[27]  R D Hare,et al.  Psychopathy and the DSM-IV criteria for antisocial personality disorder. , 1991, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[28]  Alcohol and drug abuse-dependence disorders in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic criminal offenders. , 1990 .

[29]  P. Lang,et al.  The startle probe response: a new measure of emotion? , 1988, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[30]  R. Hare,et al.  Psychopathy and physiological activity in a mixed-motive game situation. , 1974, Psychophysiology.

[31]  Temperamental factors in human development. , 1991 .

[32]  R D Hare,et al.  Psychopathy and detection of deception in a prison population. , 1978, Psychophysiology.

[33]  R D Hare,et al.  Psychopathy and physiological responses to threat of an aversive stimulus. , 1978, Psychophysiology.

[34]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion in the criminal psychopath: startle reflex modulation. , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[35]  H. Quay,et al.  The effect of social reward on verbal conditioning in psychopathic and neurotic military offenders. , 1962, Journal of consulting psychology.

[36]  A. Buss,et al.  A Temperament Theory of Personality Development , 1975 .

[37]  D. Lykken,et al.  A study of anxiety in the sociopathic personality. , 1957, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[38]  A comparison of field and laboratory polygraphs in the detection of deception. , 1991, Psychophysiology.

[39]  R. Hare,et al.  Factor structure of the Psychopathy Checklist. , 1988, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[40]  Michael Davis,et al.  Pharmacological and anatomical analysis of fear conditioning using the fear-potentiated startle paradigm. , 1986, Behavioral neuroscience.

[41]  M. Bradley,et al.  Startle and emotion: lateral acoustic probes and the bilateral blink. , 1991, Psychophysiology.

[42]  W. Arrindell,et al.  Phobic dimensions: I. Reliability and generalizability across samples, gender and nations , 1984 .

[43]  D. Watson,et al.  Mood and the mundane: relations between daily life events and self-reported mood. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[44]  P. Lang,et al.  Affective judgment and psychophysiological response: Dimensional covariation in the evaluation of pictorial stimuli. , 1989 .

[45]  Michael Davis.  Neural Systems Involved in Fear‐Potentiated Startle , 1989, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[46]  Robert D. Hare,et al.  A research scale for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations , 1980 .

[47]  N. Fox,et al.  If it's not left, it's right. Electroencephalograph asymmetry and the development of emotion. , 1991, The American psychologist.

[48]  Joseph E LeDoux,et al.  The lateral amygdaloid nucleus: sensory interface of the amygdala in fear conditioning , 1990, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[49]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion, attention, and the startle reflex. , 1990, Psychological review.

[50]  Michael Davis,et al.  Lesions of the amygdala, but not of the cerebellum or red nucleus, block conditioned fear as measured with the potentiated startle paradigm. , 1986, Behavioral neuroscience.

[51]  Charles R. Honts,et al.  Effects of physical countermeasures on the physiological detection of deception. , 1985, Journal of Applied Psychology.

[52]  Fear imagery and the startle-probe reflex. , 1990 .

[53]  R. Hare,et al.  Two-factor conceptualization of psychopathy: construct validity and assessment implications , 1989 .

[54]  K Merikangas,et al.  Fear-potentiated startle in humans: effects of anticipatory anxiety on the acoustic blink reflex. , 1991, Psychophysiology.

[55]  J. S. Brown,et al.  Conditioned fear as revealed by magnitude of startle response to an auditory stimulus. , 1951, Journal of experimental psychology.

[56]  Stephen D. Hart,et al.  The revised Psychopathy Checklist: Reliability and factor structure. , 1990 .

[57]  Robert D. Hare,et al.  Psychopathy: Theory and research. , 1970 .

[58]  R. Hare,et al.  Abnormal processing of affective words by psychopaths. , 1991, Psychophysiology.

[59]  Mortimer Mishkin,et al.  Chapter 12 – THE AMYGDALA: SENSORY GATEWAY TO THE EMOTIONS , 1986 .

[60]  K Merikangas,et al.  Measuring the time course of anticipatory anxiety using the fear-potentiated startle reflex. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[61]  P. Lang,et al.  Emotion in the criminal psychopath: fear image processing. , 1994, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[62]  Christopher J. Patrick,et al.  Validity of the Control Question Polygraph Test: The Problem of Sampling Bias , 1991 .

[63]  D. Fowles,et al.  The three arousal model: implications of gray's two-factor learning theory for heart rate, electrodermal activity, and psychopathy. , 1980, Psychophysiology.

[64]  L. Putnam.  Great expectations: Anticipatory responses of the heart and brain. , 1990 .

[65]  J. Konorski.  Integrative activity of the brain : an interdisciplinary approach , 1967 .

[66]  D. Watson,et al.  Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.