Somatic markers and response reversal: is there orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in boys with psychopathic tendencies?
This study investigated the performance of boys with psychopathic tendencies and comparison boys, aged 9 to 17 years, on two tasks believed to be sensitive to amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex functioning. Fifty-one boys were divided into two groups according to the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD, P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, in press) and presented with two tasks. The tasks were the gambling task (A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) and the Intradimensional/Extradimensional (ID/ED) shift task (R. Dias, T. W. Robbins, & A. C. Roberts, 1996). The boys with psychopathic tendencies showed impaired performance on the gambling task. However, there were no group differences on the ID/ED task either for response reversal or extradimensional set shifting. The implications of these results for models of psychopathy are discussed.
Blair
R J
RJ
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, England.
Colledge
E
E
Mitchell
D G
DG
D000293:Adolescent; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D012193:Reversal Learning / Q000502:physiology*