Data_Sheet_1_Psychopathic tendency in violent offenders is associated with reduced aversive Pavlovian inhibition of behavior and associated striatal BOLD signal.docx

BackgroundViolent offenders with psychopathic tendencies are characterized by instrumental, i.e., planned, callous, and unemotional (aggressive) behavior and have been shown to exhibit abnormal aversive processing. However, the consequences of abnormal aversive processing for instrumental action and associated neural mechanisms are unclear.Materials and methodsHere we address this issue by using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 15 violent offenders with high psychopathic tendencies and 18 matched controls during the performance of an aversive Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer paradigm. This paradigm allowed us to assess the degree to which aversive Pavlovian cues affect instrumental action and associated neural signaling.ResultsPsychopathic tendency scores were associated with an attenuation of aversive Pavlovian inhibition of instrumental action. Moreover, exploratory analyses revealed an anomalous positive association between aversive inhibition of action and aversive inhibition of BOLD signal in the caudate nucleus of violent offenders with psychopathic tendencies. In addition, psychopathic tendency also correlated positively with amygdala reactivity during aversive versus neutral cues in Pavlovian training.ConclusionThese findings strengthen the hypothesis that psychopathic tendencies in violent offenders are related to abnormal impact of aversive processing on instrumental behavior. The neural effects raise the possibility that this reflects deficient transfer of aversive Pavlovian inhibitory biases onto neural systems that implement instrumental action, including the caudate nucleus.

背景：具有精神病理倾向的暴力犯罪者以其工具性、即有计划、冷漠和缺乏情感（具有侵略性）的行为为特征，并且已被证明表现出异常的厌恶处理。然而，对于工具性行动及其相关神经机制而言，异常的厌恶处理所产生的影响尚不明确。材料与方法：在本研究中，我们通过在15名具有高度精神病理倾向的暴力犯罪者和18名匹配对照者中，使用事件相关功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）技术，在执行厌恶性巴甫洛夫向工具性行为转移范式时，探讨了这一问题。该范式使我们能够评估厌恶性巴甫洛夫线索对工具性行为及其相关神经信号的影响。结果：精神病理倾向评分与工具性行为的厌恶性巴甫洛夫抑制减弱相关。此外，探索性分析揭示，在具有精神病理倾向的暴力犯罪者中，动作的厌恶性抑制与尾状核的厌恶性抑制BOLD信号之间存在异常的正相关。此外，精神病理倾向与在巴甫洛夫训练中，厌恶性线索与中性线索相比的杏仁核反应性也呈正相关。结论：这些发现加强了暴力犯罪者的精神病理倾向与厌恶处理对工具性行为异常影响的假设。神经效应表明，这可能反映了厌恶性巴甫洛夫抑制偏向在神经系统中向实施工具性行为的神经系统的转移缺陷，包括尾状核。