title: Functional Connectivity Bias in the Prefrontal Cortex of Psychopaths.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Psychopathy is characterized by a distinctive interpersonal style that combines callous-unemotional traits with inflexible and antisocial behavior. Traditional emotion-based perspectives link emotional impairment mostly to alterations in amygdala-ventromedial frontal circuits. However, these models alone cannot explain why individuals with psychopathy can regularly benefit from emotional information when placed on their focus of attention and why they are more resistant to interference from nonaffective contextual cues. The present study aimed to identify abnormal or distinctive functional links between and within emotional and cognitive brain systems in the psychopathic brain to characterize further the neural bases of psychopathy.
  
  
  METHODS
  High-resolution anatomic magnetic resonance imaging with a functional sequence acquired in the resting state was used to assess 22 subjects with psychopathy and 22 control subjects. Anatomic and functional connectivity alterations were investigated first using a whole-brain analysis. Brain regions showing overlapping anatomic and functional changes were examined further using seed-based functional connectivity mapping.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subjects with psychopathy showed gray matter reduction involving prefrontal cortex, paralimbic, and limbic structures. Anatomic changes overlapped with areas showing increased degree of functional connectivity at the medial-dorsal frontal cortex. Subsequent functional seed-based connectivity mapping revealed a pattern of reduced functional connectivity of prefrontal areas with limbic-paralimbic structures and enhanced connectivity within the dorsal frontal lobe in subjects with psychopathy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that a weakened link between emotional and cognitive domains in the psychopathic brain may combine with enhanced functional connections within frontal executive areas. The identified functional alterations are discussed in the context of potential contributors to the inflexible behavior displayed by individuals with psychopathy.
authors.affiliation: Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL (OC-R, CS-M, RH-R, JMM, NC), Psychiatry Department, Bellvitge University Hospital, CIBERSAM at Barcelona; Department of Clinical Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience F. Olóriz (OC-R), University of Granada; MRI Research Unit (OC-R, JPu, BJH, JD, ML-S, DM), CRC Mar, Hospital del Mar at Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Oren
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Contreras-Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience F. Olóriz (OC-R), University of Granada; MRI Research Unit (OC-R, JPu, BJH, JD, ML-S, DM), CRC Mar, Hospital del Mar at Barcelona, Spain; Centro Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (JPu), CIBERSAM G21, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: jpujol@crccorp.es.
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pujol
authors.affiliation: GSS (IB, VP, JPi), Hospital Santa Maria and Biomedical Research Institute at Lleida.
authors.forename: Iolanda
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Batalla
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience F. Olóriz (OC-R), University of Granada; MRI Research Unit (OC-R, JPu, BJH, JD, ML-S, DM), CRC Mar, Hospital del Mar at Barcelona, Spain; Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre (BJH), Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Ben J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.affiliation: Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL (OC-R, CS-M, RH-R, JMM, NC), Psychiatry Department, Bellvitge University Hospital, CIBERSAM at Barcelona.
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soriano-Mas
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience F. Olóriz (OC-R), University of Granada; MRI Research Unit (OC-R, JPu, BJH, JD, ML-S, DM), CRC Mar, Hospital del Mar at Barcelona, Spain; Department of Clinical and Health Psychology (JD), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deus
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience F. Olóriz (OC-R), University of Granada; MRI Research Unit (OC-R, JPu, BJH, JD, ML-S, DM), CRC Mar, Hospital del Mar at Barcelona, Spain; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience (ML-S), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López-Solà
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience F. Olóriz (OC-R), University of Granada; MRI Research Unit (OC-R, JPu, BJH, JD, ML-S, DM), CRC Mar, Hospital del Mar at Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Dídac
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Macià
authors.affiliation: GSS (IB, VP, JPi), Hospital Santa Maria and Biomedical Research Institute at Lleida; Child-Juvenile Mental Health Center of Sant Joan de Déu at Lleida (VP), Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pera
authors.affiliation: Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL (OC-R, CS-M, RH-R, JMM, NC), Psychiatry Department, Bellvitge University Hospital, CIBERSAM at Barcelona.
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hernández-Ribas
authors.affiliation: GSS (IB, VP, JPi), Hospital Santa Maria and Biomedical Research Institute at Lleida.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pifarré
authors.affiliation: Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL (OC-R, CS-M, RH-R, JMM, NC), Psychiatry Department, Bellvitge University Hospital, CIBERSAM at Barcelona.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Menchón
authors.affiliation: Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL (OC-R, CS-M, RH-R, JMM, NC), Psychiatry Department, Bellvitge University Hospital, CIBERSAM at Barcelona.
authors.forename: Narcís
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cardoner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D009929:Organ Size; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012146:Rest
keywords: Amygdala; Dorsal executive network; Flexible self-regulation; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Psychopathy; Resting-state functional connectivity