Oxytocin normalizes the implicit processing of fearful faces in psychopathy: a randomized crossover study using fMRI

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) with and without psychopathy accounts for most violent crimes.
• Psychopathy is characterized by significant empathic processing deficits.
• Oxytocin is known to influence neural responses to fear in healthy individuals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of intranasal oxytocin on empathic processing in violent offenders.
• To examine neural responses to fearful facial expressions in individuals with and without psychopathy.

Main Methods:

• A placebo-controlled, randomized crossover study involving 34 violent offenders (19 with ASPD+P, 15 with ASPD-P) and 24 controls.
• Participants received intranasal oxytocin (40 IU) or placebo.
• fMRI was used to assess brain activity during an implicit processing task involving morphed fearful facial expressions.

Main Results:

• Violent offenders with psychopathy (ASPD+P) showed abnormal mid-cingulate cortex activity in response to increasing fear.
• Oxytocin administration abolished these group differences in neural responses.
• This suggests oxytocin can modulate empathic processing in psychopathy.

Conclusions:

• Abnormal empathic processing in psychopathy is linked to specific neural deficits.
• Oxytocin shows potential as a pharmacological intervention for modulating empathic deficits in psychopathy.
• This study provides evidence for neurochemical modulation of empathy in individuals with psychopathy.