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Left-hemisphere activation and deficient response modulation in psychopaths
A Bernstein1, J P Newman, J F Wallace
1Department of Psychology, 1202 West Johnson St., University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Psychological Science
|March 7, 2001
Summary
Psychopathic offenders struggle with response modulation, especially when left-hemisphere functions are engaged. This study found their memory deficits for secondary task details were specific to left-hemisphere processing.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Criminology
Background:
- Psychopathic offenders exhibit deficits in processing secondary cues during goal-directed behavior.
- Previous research suggests these deficits may be linked to specific hemispheric resource engagement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether response modulation deficits in psychopaths are specific to left-hemisphere engagement.
- To examine the role of hemispheric lateralization in the cognitive impairments associated with psychopathy.
Main Methods:
- A serial recall task was administered to 21 incarcerated psychopaths and 21 control subjects.
- Participants memorized word-location pairs presented visually.
- Recall of both word order and location was assessed.
Main Results:
- Psychopaths and controls showed similar performance in recalling words from left and right visual fields.
- Psychopaths recalled significantly fewer word locations from the right visual field compared to controls.
- This indicates a specific deficit in response modulation when left-hemisphere resources are engaged.
Conclusions:
- The findings support the hypothesis that psychopathic response modulation deficits are specific to conditions engaging left-hemisphere resources.
- This suggests lateralized cognitive processing differences contribute to psychopathic behavior.
- Understanding these hemispheric specificities may inform targeted interventions for psychopathic offenders.