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Disturbed prefrontal and temporal brain function during emotion and cognition interaction in criminal psychopathy
Author(s) -
Müller Jürgen L.,
Sommer Monika,
Döhnel Katrin,
Weber Tatjana,
SchmidtWilcke Tobias,
Hajak Göran
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.796
Subject(s) - psychopathy , cognition , psychology , prefrontal cortex , cognitive psychology , superior temporal gyrus , neuroimaging , neuroscience , functional magnetic resonance imaging , personality , social psychology
Impaired emotional responsiveness has been revealed as a hallmark of psychopathy. In spite of an increasing database on emotion processing, studies on cognitive function and in particular on the impact of emotion on cognition in psychopathy are rare. We used pictures from the International Affective Picture Set (IAPS) and a Simon Paradigm to address emotion–cognition interaction while functional and structural imaging data were obtained in 12 healthy controls and 10 psychopaths. We found an impaired emotion–cognition interaction in psychopaths that correlated with a changed prefrontal and temporal brain activation. With regard to the temporal cortex, it is shown that structure and function of the right superior temporal gyrus is disturbed in psychopathy, supporting a neurobiological approach to psychopathy, in which structure and function of the right STG may be important. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.