Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:03:10.905Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Affective startle potentiation differentiates primary and secondary variants of juvenile psychopathy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2016

Eva R. Kimonis ,
Kostas A. Fanti ,
Natalie Goulter  and
Jason Hall
Eva R. Kimonis*
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales
Kostas A. Fanti
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
Natalie Goulter
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales
Jason Hall
Affiliation:
University of South Florida
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Eva R. Kimonis, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia; Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Individuals with psychopathic traits show an attenuated emotional response to aversive stimuli. However, recent evidence suggests heterogeneity in emotional reactivity among individuals with psychopathic or callous–unemotional (CU) traits in the identification of primary and secondary subtypes, or variants. We hypothesized that primary CU variants will respond with blunted affect to negatively valenced stimuli, whereas individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment, fitting with theoretical conceptualizations of secondary psychopathy, will display heightened emotional reactivity. To test this hypothesis, we examined fear-potentiated startle between CU variants while viewing aversive, pleasant, and neutral scenes. Two hundred thirty-eight incarcerated adolescent (M age = 16.8 years, SD = 1.11 years) boys completed a picture-startle paradigm and self-report questionnaires assessing CU traits, aggressive behavior, and maltreatment. Latent profile analysis of CU trait, aggression, and maltreatment scores identified four classes: primary psychopathy variants (high CU traits, high aggression, low maltreatment; n = 46), secondary psychopathy variants (high CU traits, high aggression, high maltreatment; n = 42), and two nonpsychopathic groups differentiated on maltreatment experience (n = 148). Primary CU variants displayed reduced startle potentiation to aversive images relative to control, maltreated, and also secondary variants that exhibited greater startle modulation. Findings add to a rapidly growing body of literature supporting the possibility of multiple developmental pathways to psychopathic traits (i.e., equifinality), and extend it by finding support for divergent potential biomarkers between primary and secondary CU variants.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 1149 - 1160
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This study was funded by the University of South Florida's Neuroscience Collaborative. We thank Aisha Howard, Roberta Clanton, Melissa Dardiz, Ly Ngo, Thy Nguyen, Edward Perin, Aaron Stewart, and Mathew Donovan for their assistance with data collection. We also thank the youth who participated in this study and the facility staff who facilitated data collection.

References

Bagley, A. D., Abramowitz, C. S., & Kosson, D. S. (2009). Vocal affect recognition and psychopathy: Converging findings across traditional and cluster analytic approaches to assessing the construct. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 388–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barker, E. D., Oliver, B. R., Viding, E., Salekin, R. T., & Maughan, B. (2011). The impact of prenatal maternal risk, fearless temperament and early parenting on adolescent callous-unemotional traits: A 14-year longitudinal investigation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 878–888.Google Scholar
Baskin-Sommers, A. R., Curtin, J. J., & Newman, J. P. (2011). Specifying the attentional selection that moderates the fearlessness of psychopathic offenders. Psychological Science, 22, 226–234.Google Scholar
Bedford, R., Pickles, A., Sharp, H., Wright, N., & Hill, J. (2015). Reduced face preference in infancy: A developmental precursor to callous-unemotional traits? Biological Psychiatry, 78, 144–150.Google Scholar
Bennett, D. C., & Kerig, P. K. (2014). Investigating the construct of trauma-elated acquired callousness among delinquent youth: Differences in emotion processing. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 27, 415–422.Google Scholar
Bernat, E., Patrick, C. J., Benning, S. D., & Tellegen, A. (2006). Effects of picture content and intensity on affective physiological response. Psychophysiology, 43, 93–103.Google Scholar
Bernstein, D., & Fink, L. (1998). Manual for the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. New York: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Bernstein, D., Fink, L., Handelsman, L., Foote, J., Lovejoy, M., Wenzel, K., … Ruggiero, J. (1994). Initial reliability and validity of a new retrospective measure of child abuse and neglect. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 1132–1136.Google Scholar
Blair, R. J. R. (2001). Neurocognitive models of aggression, the antisocial personality disorders, and psychopathy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 71, 727–731.Google Scholar
Blair, R. J. R. (2003). Neurobiological basis of psychopathy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 182, 5–7.Google Scholar
Blair, R. J. R. (2013). The neurobiology of psychopathic traits in youths. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14, 786–799.Google Scholar
Blair, R. J. R., Colledge, E., Murray, L., & Mitchell, D. G. (2001). A selective impairment in the processing of sad and fearful expressions in children with psychopathic tendencies. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 491–498.Google Scholar
Blumenthal, T. D., Cuthbert, B. N., Filion, D. L., Hackley, S., Lipp, O. V., & Van Boxtel, A. (2005). Committee report: Guidelines for human startle eyeblink electromyographic studies. Psychophysiology, 42, 1–15.Google Scholar
Carlson, M., & Earls, F. (1997). Psychological and neuroendocrinological sequelae of early social deprivation in institutionalized children in Romania. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 807, 419–428.Google Scholar
Cecil, C. A. M., Lysenko, L. J., Jaffee, S. R., Pingault, J., Smith, R. G., Relton, C. L., … Barker, E. D. (2014). Environmental risk, oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) methylation and youth callous-unemotional traits: A 13-year longitudinal study. Molecular Psychiatry, 19, 1071–1077.Google Scholar
Chaffin, M., & Friedrich, B. (2004). Evidence-based treatments in child abuse and neglect. Children and Youth Services Review, 26, 1097–1113.Google Scholar
Cleckley, H. (1941). The mask of sanity. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. Hillside. NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155.Google Scholar
Dadds, M. R., Allen, J. L., McGregor, K., Woolgar, M., Viding, E., & Scott, S. (2014). Callous-unemotional traits in children and mechanisms of impaired eye contact during expressions of love: A treatment target? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55, 771–780.Google Scholar
Dadds, M. R., Cauchi, A. J., Wimalaweera, S., Hawes, D. J., & Brennan, J. (2012). Outcomes, moderators, and mediators of empathic-emotion recognition training for complex conduct problems in childhood. Psychiatry Research, 199, 201–207.Google Scholar
Dadds, M. R., Kimonis, E. R., Schollar-Root, O., Moul, C., & Hawes, D. J. (2016). Is emotion blindness a core feature of callous-unemotional traits? Testing the primary versus trauma-based secondary psychopathy model in children. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Dadds, M. R., Perry, Y., Hawes, D. J., Merz, S., Riddell, A. C., Haines, D. J., … Abeygunawardane, A. I. (2006). Attention to the eyes and fear-recognition deficits in child psychopathy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 189, 280–281.Google Scholar
Datyner, A., Kimonis, E. R., Hunt, E., & Armstrong, K. (2015). Using a novel emotional skills module to enhance empathic responding for a child with conduct disorder with limited prosocial emotions. Clinical Case Studies. Advance online publication.Google Scholar
Dawel, A., O'Kearney, R., McKone, E., & Palermo, R. (2012). Not just fear and sadness: Meta-analytic evidence of pervasive emotion recognition deficits for facial and vocal expressions in psychopathy. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 36, 2288–2304.Google Scholar
Doom, J. R., Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F. A. (2014). Longitudinal patterns of cortisol regulation differ in maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 53, 1206–1215.Google Scholar
Essau, C. A., Sasagawa, S., & Frick, P. J. (2006). Callous-unemotional traits in a community sample of adolescents. Assessment, 13, 454–469.Google Scholar
Fanti, K. A., Demetriou, C. A., & Kimonis, E. R. (2013). Variants of callous-unemotional conduct problems in a community sample of adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42, 964–979.Google Scholar
Fanti, K. A., Frick, P. J., & Georgiou, S. (2009). Linking callous-unemotional traits to instrumental and non-instrumental forms of aggression. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 31, 285–298.Google Scholar
Fanti, K. A., Panayiotou, G., Kyranides, M. N., & Avraamides, M. N. (2015). Startle modulation during violent films: Association with callous-unemotional traits and aggressive behavior. Motivation & Emotion. Advance online publication.Google Scholar
Fanti, K. A., Panayiotou, G., Lazarou, C., Michael, R., & Georgiou, G. (2016). The better of two evils? Evidence that children exhibiting continuous conduct problems high or low on callous-unemotional traits score on opposite directions on physiological and behavioral measures of fear. Development and Psychopathology, 28, 185–198.Google Scholar
Fowles, D. C. (1980). The three arousal model: Implications of Gray's two-factor learning theory for heart rate, electrodermal activity, and psychopathy. Psychophysiology, 17, 87–104.Google Scholar
Frick, P. J. (2004). The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. New Orleans, LA: University of New Orleans.Google Scholar
Frick, P. J., & Morris, A. S. (2004). Temperament and developmental pathways to conduct problems. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 54–68.Google Scholar
Frick, P. J., Ray, J. V., Thornton, L. C., & Kahn, R. E. (2014). Can callous-unemotional traits enhance the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of serious conduct problems in children and adolescents? A comprehensive review. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 1–57.Google Scholar
Gilles, E., Berntson, G., Zipf, W., & Gunnar, M. (2000). Neglect is associated with a blunting of behavioural and biological stress responses in human infants. Paper presented at the International Conference of Infant Studies, Brighton, England.Google Scholar
Gray, J. A. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grillon, C. (2002). Startle reactivity and anxiety disorders: Aversive conditioning, context, and neurobiology. Biological Psychiatry, 52, 958–975.Google Scholar
Hicks, B. M., Markon, K. E., Patrick, C. J., Krueger, R. F., & Newman, J. P. (2004). Identifying psychopathy subtypes on the basis of personality structure. Psychological Assessment, 16, 276–288.Google Scholar
Hicks, B. M., Vaidyanathan, U., & Patrick, C. J. (2010). Validating female psychopathy subtypes: Differences in personality, antisocial and violent behavior, substance abuse, trauma, and mental health. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, & Treatment, 1, 38–57.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M. L. (1994). Discipline and internalization. Developmental Psychobiology, 30, 26–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jovanovic, T., Blanding, N. Q., Norrholm, S. D., Duncan, E., Bradley, B., & Ressler, K. J. (2009). Childhood abuse is associated with increased startle reactivity in adulthood. Depression and Anxiety, 26, 1018–1026.Google Scholar
Kahn, R. E., Frick, P. J., Youngstrom, E. A., Kogos Youngstrom, J., Feeny, N. C., & Findling, R. L. (2013). Distinguishing primary and secondary variants of callous-unemotional traits among adolescents in a clinic-referred sample. Psychological Assessment, 25, 966–978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karpman, B. (1941). On the need of separating psychopathy into two distinct clinical types: The symptomatic and the idiopathic. Journal of Criminal Psychopathology, 3, 112–137.Google Scholar
Karpman, B. (1948). Conscience in the psychopath; another version. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 18, 455–491.Google Scholar
Kaslow, N. J., & Thompson, M. P. (1998). Applying the criteria for empirically supported treatments to studies of psychosocial interventions for child and adolescent depression. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 27, 146–155.Google Scholar
Kimonis, E. R., Bagner, D. M., Linares, D., Blake, C. A., & Rodriguez, G. (2014). Parent training outcomes among young children with callous-unemotional conduct problems with or at risk for developmental delay. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23, 437–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kimonis, E. R., Fanti, K., Hadjicharalambous, X., Mertan, B., Goulter, N., & Katsimicha, E. (2016). Can callous-unemotional traits be reliably measured in preschoolers? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44, 625–638.Google Scholar
Kimonis, E. R., Fanti, K. A., Isoma, Z., & Donoghue, K. (2013). Maltreatment profiles among incarcerated boys with callous-unemotional traits. Child Maltreatment, 18, 108–121.Google Scholar
Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Cauffman, E., Goldweber, A., & Skeem, J. L. (2012). Primary and secondary variants of juvenile psychopathy differ in emotional processing. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 1091–1103.Google Scholar
Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Muñoz, L. C., & Aucoin, K. J. (2008). Callous–unemotional traits and the emotional processing of distress cues in detained boys: Testing the moderating role of aggression, exposure to community violence, and histories of abuse. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 569–589.Google Scholar
Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Skeem, J. L., Marsee, M. A., Cruise, K., Muñoz, L. C., … Morris, A. S. (2008). Assessing callous-unemotional traits in adolescent offenders: Validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 31, 241–252.Google Scholar
Kimonis, E. R., Skeem, J. L., Cauffman, E., & Dmitrieva, J. (2011). Are secondary variants of juvenile psychopathy more reactively violent and less psychosocially mature than primary variants? Law & Human Behavior, 35, 381–391.Google Scholar
Kimonis, E. R., Fanti, K., Hadjicharalambous, X., Mertan, B., Goulter, N., & Katsimicha, E. (2016). Can callous-unemotional traits be reliably measured in preschoolers? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44, 625–638.Google Scholar
Klimes-Dougan, B., & Kistner, J. (1990). Physically abused preschoolers’ responses to peers’ distress. Developmental Psychology, 26, 599–602.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G. (1993). Toward a synthesis of parental socialization and child temperament in early development of conscience. Child Development, 64, 325–347.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G. (1995). Children's temperament, mothers’ discipline, and security of attachment: Multiple pathways to emerging internalization. Child Development, 66, 597–615.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G. (1997). Multiple pathways to conscience for children with different temperaments: From toddlerhood to age 5. Developmental Psychology, 33, 228–240.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., & Murray, K. T. (2000). Mother-child mutually responsive orientation and conscience development: From toddler to early school age. Child Development, 71, 417–431.Google Scholar
Krischer, M. K., & Sevecke, K. (2008). Early traumatization and psychopathy in female and male juvenile offenders. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 31, 253–262.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1998). Emotion, motivation, and anxiety: Brain mechanisms and psychophysiology. Biological Psychiatry, 44, 1248–1263.Google Scholar
Levenston, G. K., Patrick, C. J., Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (2000). The psychopath as observer: Emotion and attention in picture processing. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 373–385.Google Scholar
Lilienfeld, S. O., Watts, A. L., Francis Smith, S., Berg, J. M., & Latzman, R. D. (2015). Psychopathy deconstructed and reconstructed: Identifying and assembling the personality building blocks of Cleckley's chimera. Journal of Personality, 83, 593–610.Google Scholar
Lykken, D. T. (1995). The antisocial personalities. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
MacCoon, D. G., Wallace, J. F., & Newman, J. P. (2004). Self-regulation: Context-appropriate balanced attention. Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 422–444). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Main, M., & George, C. (1985). Responses of abused and disadvantaged toddlers to distress in agemates: A study in the day care setting. Developmental Psychology, 21, 407–412.Google Scholar
Marsee, M. A., Barry, C. T., Childs, K. K., Frick, P. J., Kimonis, E. R., Muñoz, L. C., … Lau, K. S. L. (2011). Assessing the forms and functions of aggression using self-report: Factor structure and invariance of the Peer Conflict Scale in youths. Psychological Assessment, 23, 792.Google Scholar
Marsh, A. A., & Blair, R. J. R. (2008). Deficits in facial affect recognition among antisocial populations: A meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 454–465.Google Scholar
Marsh, A. A., Finger, E. C., Mitchell, D. G. V., Reid, M. E., Sims, C., Kosson, D. S., … Blair, R. J. R. (2008). Reduced amygdala response to fearful expressions in children and adolescents with callous-unemotional traits and disruptive behavior disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 712–720.Google Scholar
Mokros, A., Hare, R. D., Neumann, C. S., Santtila, P., Habermeyer, E., & Nitschke, J. (2015). Variants of psychopathy in adult male offenders: A latent profile analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124, 372.Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2010). Mplus users guide (6th ed). Los Angeles: Author.Google Scholar
Nagin, D. S. (2005). Group-based modeling of development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Newman, J. P., Patterson, C. M., Howland, E. W., & Nichols, S. L. (1990). Passive avoidance in psychopaths: The effects of reward. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 1101–1114.Google Scholar
Newman, J. P., Patterson, C. M., & Kosson, D. S. (1987). Response perseveration in psychopaths. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 145–148.Google Scholar
Newman, J. P., & Schmitt, W. A. (1998). Passive avoidance in psychopathic offenders: A replication and extension. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 527–532.Google Scholar
Newman, J. P., Schmitt, W. A., & Voss, W. D. (1997). The impact of motivationally neutral cues on psychopathic individuals: Assessing the generality of the response modulation hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 563–575.Google Scholar
Nylund, K. L., Asparouhov, T., & Muthen, B. (2007). Deciding on the number of classes in latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling: A Monte Carlo simulation study. Structural Equation Modeling, 14, 535–569.Google Scholar
Ollendick, T. H., & King, N. J. (1998). Empirically supported treatments for children with phobic and anxiety disorders: Current status. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 27, 156–167.Google Scholar
Patrick, C. J. (2001). Emotional processes in psychopathy. Violence and psychopathy (pp. 57–77). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Patrick, C. J. (2007). Getting to the heart of psychopathy. In Herve, H. & Yuille, J. C. (Eds.), The psychopath: Theory, research, and social implications (pp. 207–252). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Patterson, C. M., & Newman, J. P. (1993). Reflectivity and learning from aversive events: Toward a psychological mechanism for the syndromes of disinhibition. Psychological Review, 100, 716–736.Google Scholar
Ray, J. V., Frick, P. J., Thornton, L. C., Steinberg, L., & Cauffman, E. (2015). Positive and negative item wording and its influence on the assessment of callous-unemotional traits. Psychological Assessment. Advance online publication.Google Scholar
Reynolds, C. R. (1981). Long-term stability of scores on the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 53, 702.Google Scholar
Reynolds, C. R., & Richmond, B. O. (1985). Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS): Manual. Torrance, CA: Western Psychological Services.Google Scholar
Skeem, J. L., Polaschek, D. L. L., & Manchak, S. (2009). Appropriate treatment works, but how? Rehabilitating general, psychopathic, and high-risk offenders. In Skeem, J. L., Douglas, K. S., & Lilienfield, S. O. (Eds.), Psychological science in the courtroom: Consensus and controversy (pp. 358–384). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Skeem, J. L., Poythress, N., Edens, J. F., Lilienfeld, S. O., & Cale, E. M. (2003). Psychopathic personality or personalities? Exploring potential variants of psychopathy and their implications for risk assessment. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 8, 513–546.Google Scholar
Snyder, H. N., & Sickmund, M. (2006). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.Google Scholar
Sutton, S. K., Vitale, J. E., & Newman, J. P. (2002). Emotion among women with psychopathy during picture perception. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 610–619.Google Scholar
Syngelaki, E. M., Fairchild, G., Moore, S. C., Savage, J. C., & van Goozen, S. H. M. (2013). Affective startle potentiation in juvenile offenders: The role of conduct problems and psychopathic traits. Social Neuroscience, 8, 112–121.Google Scholar
Vaidyanathan, U., Hall, J. R., Patrick, C. J., & Bernat, E. M. (2011). Clarifying the role of defensive reactivity deficits in psychopathy and antisocial personality using startle reflex methodology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 253–258.Google Scholar
van Baardewijk, Y., Stegge, H., Bushman, B. J., & Vermeiren, R. (2009). Psychopathic traits, victim distress and aggression in children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 718–725.Google Scholar
van der Vegt, E. J., van der Ende, J., Kirschbaum, C., Verhulst, F. C., & Tiemeier, H. (2009). Early neglect and abuse predict diurnal cortisol patterns in adults: A study of international adoptees. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34, 660–669.Google Scholar
Vanman, E. J., Mejia, V. Y., Dawson, M. E., Schell, A. M., & Raine, A. (2003). Modification of the startle reflex in a community sample: Do one or two dimensions of psychopathy underlie emotional processing? Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 2007–2021.Google Scholar
Vassileva, J., Kosson, D. S., Abramowitz, C., & Conrod, P. (2005). Psychopathy versus psychopathies in classifying criminal offenders. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 10, 27–43.Google Scholar
Vaughn, M. G., Edens, J. F., Howard, M. O., & Smith, S. T. (2009). An investigation of primary and secondary psychopathy in a statewide sample of incarcerated youth. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 7, 172–188.Google Scholar
Viding, E., McCrory, E., & Seara-Cardoso, A. (2014). Psychopathy. Current Biology, 24, R871–R874.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vitale, J. E., & Newman, J. P. (2001). Response perseveration in psychopathic women. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 644–647.Google Scholar
Young, S. K., Fox, N. A., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1999). The relations between temperament and empathy in 2-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 35, 1189–1197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed