title: Reduced embodied simulation in psychopathy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Psychopathy is characterized by severe deficits in emotion processing and empathy. These emotional deficits might not only affect the feeling of own emotions, but also the understanding of others' emotional and mental states. The present study aims on identifying the neurobiological correlates of social-cognitive related alterations in psychopathy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We applied a social-cognitive paradigm for the investigation of face processing, emotion recognition, and affective Theory of Mind (ToM) to 11 imprisoned psychopaths and 18 healthy controls. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure task-related brain activation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  While showing no overall behavioural deficit, psychopathy was associated with altered brain activation. Psychopaths had reduced fusiform activation related to face processing. Related to affective ToM, psychopaths had hypoactivation in amygdala, inferior prefrontal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus, areas associated with embodied simulation of emotions and intentions. Furthermore, psychopaths lacked connectivity between superior temporal sulcus and amygdala during affective ToM.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results replicate findings of alterations in basal face processing in psychopathy. In addition, they provide evidence for reduced embodied simulation in psychopathy in concert with a lack of communication between motor areas and amygdala which might provide the neural substrate of reduced feeling with others during social cognition.
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/University of Heidelberg , Mannheim , Germany.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mier
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Haddad
authors.forename: Kersten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Diers
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dressing
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meyer-Lindenberg
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kirsch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: amygdala; functional magnetic resonance imaging; mirror neuron system; psychopathy; social cognition