Semantic and affective processing in psychopaths: an event-related potential (ERP) study.
We tested the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with abnormal processing of semantic and affective verbal information. In Task 1, a lexical decision task, and in Task 2, a word identification task, participants responded faster to concrete than to abstract words. In Task 2, psychopaths made more errors identifying abstract words than concrete words. In Task 3, a word identification task, participants responded faster to positive than to negative words. In all three tasks, nonpsychopaths showed the expected event-related potential (ERP) differentiation between word stimuli, whereas psychopaths did not. In each task, the ERPs of the psychopaths included a large centrofrontal negative-going wave (N350); this wave was absent or very small in the nonpsychopaths. The interpretation and significance of these differences are discussed.
Kiehl
K A
KA
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. kiehl@cs.ubc.ca
Hare
R D
RD
McDonald
J J
JJ
Brink
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012938:Social Perception; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology