[Psychopathy and neuropsychology of the prefrontal cortex]

We review the main experimental works about the relationship between psychopathy and prefrontal cortex. First neuropsychological articles found contradictory results exploring psychopaths who were diagnosed by different criteria and using putative dorsolateral tests. Attentional deficits in psychopaths and relationships between psychopathy and attention disorder with and without hyperactivity have been studied. Distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy has been related to neuropsychological impairment in antisocial disorder. Differentiation between orbital and dorsolateral prefrontal systems should be taken into account in order to study the neuropsychological deficits in psychopathy. It has been pointed that orbitoventral system would be involved in antisocial behaviour. Hence, neuropsychological impairment in psychopaths is expected to be related to orbitofrontal dysfunction.