title: Somatic aphasia: mismatch of body sensations with autonomic stress reactivity in psychopathy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although one of the main characteristics of psychopaths is a deficit in emotion, it is unknown whether they show a fundamental impairment in appropriately recognizing their own body sensations during an emotion-inducing task.
  
  
  METHODS
  Skin conductance and heart rate were recorded in 138 males during a social stressor together with subjective reports of body sensations. Psychopathic traits were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) 2nd edition (Hare, 2003).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nonpsychopathic controls who reported higher body sensations showed higher heart rate reactivity, but this verbal-autonomic consistency was not found in psychopathic individuals. This mind-body disconnection is particularly associated with the interpersonal-affective factor of psychopathy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings are the first to document this body sensation-autonomic mismatch in psychopaths, and suggest that somatic aphasia - the inaccurate identification and recognition of one's own somatic states - may partly underlie the interpersonal-affective features of psychopathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, United States. yugao@brooklyn.cuny.edu
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raine
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Schug
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D001037:Aphasia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010556:Personality Tests; D011603:Psychophysiology; D012677:Sensation / Q000502:physiology*; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult