Disrupted Prefrontal Regulation of Striatal Subjective Value Signals in Psychopathy

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Psychopathy is a personality disorder strongly associated with criminal behavior.
• Research increasingly points to aberrant decision-making, beyond socio-affective deficits, as a key feature.
• The precise neural circuit mechanisms underlying these decision-making deficits remain largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the circuit-level mechanisms of maladaptive decision making in psychopathy.
• To identify neurobiological correlates of decision-making dysfunction in incarcerated offenders.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a multi-modality functional imaging approach.
• Examined functional connectivity and activity within cortico-striatal circuits.
• Assessed psychopathy severity and criminal conviction history in adult male incarcerated offenders.

Main Results:

• Psychopathy correlated with heightened nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activity during inter-temporal choice.
• Weaker intrinsic functional connectivity was observed between the NAcc and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC).
• Reduced NAcc-vmPFC connectivity abolished regulatory patterns and predicted increased criminal convictions.

Conclusions:

• Cortico-striatal circuit dysregulation drives maladaptive decision making in psychopathy.
• Reward system dysfunction is a significant neurobiological risk factor for psychopathy and associated criminal behavior.
• Findings highlight the role of neural circuitry in the pathophysiology of psychopathy.