title: Unemotional traits predict early processing deficit for fearful expressions in young violent offenders: an investigation using continuous flash suppression.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Research evidence suggests that cognitive and neural mechanisms involved in social information processing may underlie the key aspects associated with the emergence of aggression and psychopathy. Despite extensive research in this field, it is unclear whether this deficit relates to general attentional problems or affects early stages of information processing. Therefore, the aim was to explore the link between aggression, psychopathic traits, and the early processing deficits in young antisocial violent offenders (YAVOs) and healthy controls (CTLs).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were presented with rapidly changing Mondrian-like images in one eye, while a neutral or emotional (happy, angry, fearful, disgusted, surprised, sad) face was slowly introduced to the other eye. Participants indicated the location in which the face had appeared on the screen, reflecting the time when they became aware of the stimulus. The relative processing advantage was obtained by subtracting mean reaction times for emotional from neutral faces.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicated that individuals with higher levels of unemotional traits tended to exhibit an extensive early processing disadvantage for fearful facial expressions; this relationship was only evident in the YAVO as opposed to the CTL sample.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate that an emotion processing deficit in antisocial individuals is present even at the most basic levels of processing and closely related to certain psychopathic traits. Furthermore, this early processing deficit appears to be highly specific to fearful expressions, which is consistent with predictions made by influential models of psychopathy. The clinical significance and potential implications of the results are discussed.
authors: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy,University of Tübingen,Tübingen,Germany.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Jusyte
authors: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy,University of Tübingen,Tübingen,Germany.
authors: S V
authors: SV
authors: Mayer
authors: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy,University of Tübingen,Tübingen,Germany.
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Künzel
authors: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy,University of Tübingen,Tübingen,Germany.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Hautzinger
authors: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy,University of Tübingen,Tübingen,Germany.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Schönenberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aggression; callous-unemotional traits; early processing; emotion recognition; psychopathy