Callous-unemotional traits and neural responses to emotional faces in a community sample of young adults

Edina Szabó; Natália Kocsel; Andrea Édes; Dorottya Pap; Attila Galambos; Terézia Zsombók; Ádám Szabó; Lajos Rudolf Kozák; György Bagdy; Gabriella Juhász; Gyöngyi Kökönyei

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.026

Callous-unemotional traits and neural responses to emotional faces in a community sample of young adults

Edina Szabó, Natália Kocsel, Andrea Édes, Dorottya Pap, Attila Galambos, Terézia Zsombók, Ádám Szabó, Lajos Rudolf Kozák, György Bagdy, Gabriella Juhász, Gyöngyi Kökönyei^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Division of Neuroscience

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Former studies suggest that the core features of psychopathy, namely the callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with emotional dysfunction characterized by atypical processing of other people's distress. Using a dimensional approach to CU traits, the current study aims to test neural activity during performance of a facial expression recognition task in a community sample of young adults. Forty-one participants (25 females, M age = 25.44, SD = 4.03) completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected to measure neural responses to fearful, happy and sad faces as compared with neutral facial expressions. Region-of-interest analyses revealed that during exposure to fearful face expressions, blood oxygenation level-dependent responses were negatively associated with CU traits in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg), but not in the amygdala. These findings support that CU traits are related to a unique neural response to fearful faces in noncriminal population as well. It also highlights the importance of taking into account other regions outside the amygdala, in particular the ACC, when testing the relation between CU traits and fear response.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	312-317
Number of pages	6
Journal	Personality and Individual Differences
Volume	111
Early online date	23 Feb 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.026
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2017

Keywords

ACC
Community sample
CU traits
Face processing
fMRI

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10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.026Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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title = "Callous-unemotional traits and neural responses to emotional faces in a community sample of young adults",

abstract = "Former studies suggest that the core features of psychopathy, namely the callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with emotional dysfunction characterized by atypical processing of other people's distress. Using a dimensional approach to CU traits, the current study aims to test neural activity during performance of a facial expression recognition task in a community sample of young adults. Forty-one participants (25 females, M age = 25.44, SD = 4.03) completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected to measure neural responses to fearful, happy and sad faces as compared with neutral facial expressions. Region-of-interest analyses revealed that during exposure to fearful face expressions, blood oxygenation level-dependent responses were negatively associated with CU traits in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg), but not in the amygdala. These findings support that CU traits are related to a unique neural response to fearful faces in noncriminal population as well. It also highlights the importance of taking into account other regions outside the amygdala, in particular the ACC, when testing the relation between CU traits and fear response.",

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AU - Pap, Dorottya

AU - Galambos, Attila

AU - Zsombók, Terézia

AU - Szabó, Ádám

AU - Kozák, Lajos Rudolf

AU - Bagdy, György

AU - Juhász, Gabriella

AU - Kökönyei, Gyöngyi

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AB - Former studies suggest that the core features of psychopathy, namely the callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with emotional dysfunction characterized by atypical processing of other people's distress. Using a dimensional approach to CU traits, the current study aims to test neural activity during performance of a facial expression recognition task in a community sample of young adults. Forty-one participants (25 females, M age = 25.44, SD = 4.03) completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected to measure neural responses to fearful, happy and sad faces as compared with neutral facial expressions. Region-of-interest analyses revealed that during exposure to fearful face expressions, blood oxygenation level-dependent responses were negatively associated with CU traits in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg), but not in the amygdala. These findings support that CU traits are related to a unique neural response to fearful faces in noncriminal population as well. It also highlights the importance of taking into account other regions outside the amygdala, in particular the ACC, when testing the relation between CU traits and fear response.

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Callous-unemotional traits and neural responses to emotional faces in a community sample of young adults

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Keywords

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