title: Emotional attentional capture in children with conduct problems: the role of callous-unemotional traits.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Appropriate reactivity to emotional facial expressions, even if these are seen whilst we are engaged in another activity, is critical for successful social interaction. Children with conduct problems (CP) and high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by blunted reactivity to other people's emotions, while children with CP and low levels of CU traits can over-react to perceived emotional threat. No study to date has compared children with CP and high vs. low levels of CU traits to typically developing (TD) children or each other, using a task that assesses attentional capture by irrelevant emotional faces.
  
  
  METHODS
  All participants performed an attentional capture task in which they were asked to judge the orientation of a single male face that was displayed simultaneously with two female faces. Three types of trials were presented, trials with all neutral faces, trials with an emotional distractor face and trials with an emotional target face. Fifteen boys with CP and high levels of CU traits, 17 boys with CP and low levels of CU traits and 17 age and ability matched TD boys were included in the final study sample.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to TD children and children with low levels of CU traits, children with CP and high levels of CU traits showed reduced attentional capture by irrelevant emotional faces.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study is the first to demonstrate a different pattern in emotional attentional capture in children with CP depending on their level of CU traits.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit, Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London London, UK ; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London London, UK.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hodsoll
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London London, UK.
authors.forename: Nilli
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lavie
authors.affiliation: Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit, Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London London, UK.
authors.forename: Essi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Viding
keywords: attentional capture; callous-unemotional traits; emotion processing; emotional faces; visual search