1,721,119 research outputs found
Research review: evaluating and reformulating the developmental taxonomic theory of antisocial behaviour
Get PDFBACKGROUND: The developmental taxonomic theory proposes that there are two subtypes of antisocial behaviour. The first is a neurodevelopmental disorder which emerges in early childhood and follows a life-course persistent course, whereas the second emerges in adolescence, remits in early adulthood and reflects peer processes such as mimicry of antisocial peers. The aim of this review was to evaluate the developmental taxonomic theory in the light of recent empirical research.METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive literature review comparing these subtypes of antisocial behaviour based on searches on PubMed and other scientific databases covering the period from 1993 to 2013. We focused on research encompassing psychiatric epidemiology, personality assessment, neuropsychology, neuroendocrinology, genetics, and structural and functional neuroimaging. Sixty one empirical studies were identified that investigated one of these forms of antisocial behaviour separately or explicitly compared childhood-onset and adolescence-onset forms of antisocial behaviour.RESULTS: Empirical research provides support for the hypothesis that life-course persistent antisocial behaviour is a neurodevelopmental disorder which emerges in the transactions between individual vulnerabilities and environmental adversity. In contrast to the developmental taxonomic theory, however, empirical findings suggest that severe antisocial behaviour that emerges in adolescence frequently has a negative prognosis and is rarely limited to the adolescent period. In addition, both forms of antisocial behaviour are associated with emotion processing deficits, changes in brain structure and function, alterations in cortisol secretion, and atypical personality traits (such as increased callous-unemotional traits).CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the developmental taxonomic theory is in need of revision, as differences between life-course persistent and adolescence-onset forms of antisocial behaviour appear to be quantitative, rather than qualitative, in nature. In addition, evidence is accumulating that adolescence-onset antisocial behaviour may also be a neurodevelopmental disorder. To account for the similarities between these groups, despite the differences in their age-of-onset, we propose that the quality of the child's early environment moderates the relationship between individual vulnerabilities and the age-of-onset of antisocial behaviour
Atypical neural responses during face processing in female adolescents with conduct disorder
Get PDFOBJECTIVE: Conduct disorder (CD) in females is associated with negative adult outcomes including mental health problems and personality disorders. Although recent neuroimaging studies have reported changes in neural activity during facial emotion processing in males with CD or callous-unemotional (CU) traits, there have been no neuroimaging studies specifically assessing females with CD. We addressed this gap by investigating whether female adolescents with CD show atypical neural activation when processing emotional or neutral faces.METHOD: We acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 20 female adolescents with CD and 20 female control participants while they viewed angry, sad, and neutral faces.RESULTS: An omnibus group (CD, control) by facial emotion (angry, sad, neutral) analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed main effects of facial emotion in superior temporal cortex, fusiform gyrus, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and insula, and main effects of group in medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and right anterior insula. Female participants with CD showed reduced medial OFC and increased anterior insula responses relative to healthy controls. There were no significant group × facial emotion interactions. Lifetime CD symptoms were negatively correlated with amygdala, superior temporal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity for the contrast "all-faces versus fixation." CU traits were negatively correlated with fusiform gyrus activity for the contrast sad versus neutral faces.CONCLUSION: Females with CD showed atypical neural activation during the processing of all facial expressions, irrespective of valence. Our results demonstrate that severity of CD symptoms and CU traits is important in explaining abnormal patterns of neural activity
Fear conditioning and affective modulation of the startle reflex in male adolescents with early-onset or adolescence-onset conduct disorder and healthy control subjects
No full textBackground: Impairments in emotional processing may play an etiological role in the development of aggressive or antisocial behavior such as is seen in conduct disorder (CD). These findings may be developmentally sensitive, with neuropsychological impairments confined to those with the early-onset form of CD, which emerges in childhood. We investigated whether adolescents with early- or adolescence-onset CD would acquire fear conditioned responses to a visual conditioned stimulus and show a normal pattern of affective modulation of the startle reflexMethods: Electrodermal activity was measured during the fear conditioning process, and electromyographic recording methods were used to assess blink magnitudes elicited by acoustic startle probes during the viewing of emotionally valenced pictures. Forty-one early-onset CD, 28 adolescence-onset CD, and 54 healthy control adolescents participated in the study. Results: Both CD groups showed impaired differential fear conditioning relative to control subjects, while retaining the ability to generate normal skin conductance responses to the aversive unconditioned stimulus. There was a similar relationship between emotional valence of the slides and startle magnitude in CD and control adolescents, but startle-elicited blinks were lower across all emotion categories in both CD subtypes. Conclusions: Fear conditioning deficits and reduced startle amplitudes were observed in participants with early- and adolescence-onset forms of CD. These findings are consistent with impairments in neural systems subserving emotion and involving the amygdala in CD, regardless of age of onset
Cortical thickness, surface area, and folding alterations in male youths with conduct disorder and varying levels of callous-unemotional traits
No full textPurpose: previous studies have reported changes in gray matter volume in youths with conduct disorder (CD), although these differences are difficult to interpret as they may have been driven by alterations in cortical thickness, surface area (SA), or folding. The objective of this study was to use surface-based morphometry (SBM) methods to compare male youths with CD and age and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) in cortical thickness, SA, and folding. We also tested for structural differences between the childhood-onset and adolescence-onset subtypes of CD and performed regression analyses to assess for relationships between CD symptoms and callous-unemotional (CU) traits and SBM-derived measures. Methods: we acquired structural neuroimaging data from 20 HC and 36 CD participants (18 with childhood-onset CD and 18 with adolescence-onset CD) and analysed the data using FreeSurfer. Results: relative to HCs, youths with CD showed reduced cortical thickness in the superior temporal gyrus, reduced SA in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and increased cortical folding in the insula. There were no significant differences between the childhood-onset and adolescence-onset CD subgroups in cortical thickness or SA, but several frontal and temporal regions showed increased cortical folding in childhood-onset relative to adolescence-onset CD participants. CD symptoms were negatively correlated with OFC SA whereas CU traits were positively correlated with insula folding.Conclusions: cortical thinning in the superior temporal gyrus may contribute to the social cognitive impairments displayed by youths with CD, whereas reduced OFC SA may lead to impairments in emotion regulation and reward processing in youths with CD. The increased cortical folding observed in the insula may reflect a maturational delay in this region and could mediate the link between CU traits and empathy deficits. Altered cortical structure was observed in childhood-onset and adolescence-onset forms of C
Facial expression recognition, fear conditioning, and startle modulation in female subjects with conduct disorder
No full textBackgroundRecent behavioral and psychophysiological studies have provided converging evidence for emotional dysfunction in conduct disorder (CD). Most of these studies focused on male subjects and little is known about emotional processing in female subjects with CD. Our primary aim was to characterize explicit and implicit aspects of emotion function to determine whether deficits in these processes are present in girls with CD.MethodsFemale adolescents with CD (n = 25) and control subjects with no history of severe antisocial behavior and no current psychiatric disorder (n = 30) completed tasks measuring facial expression and facial identity recognition, differential autonomic conditioning, and affective modulation of the startle reflex by picture valence.ResultsCompared with control subjects, participants with CD showed impaired recognition of anger and disgust but no differences in facial identity recognition. Impaired sadness recognition was observed in CD participants high in psychopathic traits relative to those lower in psychopathic traits. Participants with CD displayed reduced skin conductance responses to an aversive unconditioned stimulus and impaired autonomic discrimination between the conditioned stimuli, indicating impaired fear conditioning. Participants with CD also showed reduced startle magnitudes across picture valence types, but there were no significant group differences in the pattern of affective modulation.ConclusionsAdolescent female subjects with CD exhibited deficits in explicit and implicit tests of emotion function and reduced autonomic responsiveness across different output systems. There were, however, no differences in emotional reactivity. These findings suggest that emotional recognition and learning are impaired in female subjects with CD, consistent with results previously obtained in male subjects with CD
Cortisol diurnal rhythm and stress reactivity in male adolescents with early-onset or adolescence-onset conduct disorder
Get PDFBackground: Previous studies have reported lower basal cortisol levels and reduced cortisol responses to stress in children and adolescents with conduct disorder (CD). It is not known whether these findings are specific to early-onset CD. This study investigated basal and stress-induced cortisol secretion in male participants with early-onset and adolescence-onset forms of CD.Methods: Forty-two participants with early-onset CD, 28 with adolescence-onset CD, and 95 control subjects participated in the study. They collected saliva across the day to assess their cortisol awakening response and diurnal rhythm. Subsequently, salivary cortisol was measured before, during, and after a psychosocial stress procedure designed to elicit frustration. Cardiovascular activity and subjective mood states were also assessed during stress exposure.Results: There were no group differences in morning cortisol levels or the size of the cortisol awakening response. Basal cortisol levels in the evening and at 11 am during the laboratory visit were higher in both CD subgroups relative to control subjects. In contrast, cortisol and cardiovascular responses to psychosocial stress were reduced in both CD subgroups compared with control subjects. All groups reported similar increases in negative mood states during stress.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that group differences in cortisol secretion are most pronounced during stress exposure, when participants with CD show cortisol hyporeactivity compared with control subjects. There was no evidence for reduced basal cortisol secretion in participants with CD, but rather increased secretion at specific time points. The results do not support developmentally sensitive differences in cortisol secretion between CD subtypes
Brain structure abnormalities in adolescent girls with conduct disorder
Get PDFBackground:? conduct disorder (CD) in female adolescents is associated with a range of negative outcomes, including teenage pregnancy and antisocial personality disorder. Although recent studies have documented changes in brain structure and function in male adolescents with CD, there have been no neuroimaging studies of female adolescents with CD. Our primary objective was to investigate whether female adolescents with CD show changes in grey matter volume. Our secondary aim was to assess for sex differences in the relationship between CD and brain structure. Methods:? female adolescents with CD (n?=?22) and healthy control participants matched in age, performance IQ and handedness (n?=?20) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. Group comparisons of grey matter volume were performed using voxel-based morphometry. We also tested for sex differences using archive data obtained from male CD and control participants. Results:? female adolescents with CD showed reduced bilateral anterior insula and right striatal grey matter volumes compared with healthy controls. Aggressive CD symptoms were negatively correlated with right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume, whereas callous-unemotional traits were positively correlated with bilateral orbitofrontal cortex volume. The sex differences analyses revealed a main effect of diagnosis on right amygdala volume (reflecting reduced amygdala volume in the combined CD group relative to controls) and sex-by-diagnosis interactions in bilateral anterior insula. Conclusions:? We observed structural abnormalities in brain regions involved in emotion processing, reward and empathy in female adolescents with CD, which broadly overlap with those reported in previous studies of CD in male adolescent
Behavioral measures of impulsivity and compulsivity in adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury.
No full textBACKGROUND: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is prevalent among adolescents and research is needed to clarify the mechanisms which contribute to the behavior. Here, the authors relate behavioral neurocognitive measures of impulsivity and compulsivity to repetitive and sporadic NSSI in a community sample of adolescents. METHODS: Computerized laboratory tasks (Affective Go/No-Go, Cambridge Gambling Task, and Probabilistic Reversal Task) were used to evaluate cognitive performance. Participants were adolescents aged 15 to 17 with (n = 50) and without (n = 190) NSSI history, sampled from the ROOTS project which recruited adolescents from secondary schools in Cambridgeshire, UK. NSSI was categorized as sporadic (1-3 instances per year) or repetitive (4 or more instances per year). Analyses were carried out in a series of linear and negative binomial regressions, controlling for age, gender, intelligence, and recent depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Adolescents with lifetime NSSI, and repetitive NSSI specifically, made significantly more perseverative errors on the Probabilistic Reversal Task and exhibited significantly lower quality of decision making on the Cambridge Gambling Task compared to no-NSSI controls. Those with sporadic NSSI did not significantly differ from no-NSSI controls on task performance. NSSI was not associated with behavioral measures of impulsivity. CONCLUSIONS: Repetitive NSSI is associated with increased behavioral compulsivity and disadvantageous decision making, but not with behavioral impulsivity. Future research should continue to investigate how neurocognitive phenotypes contribute to the onset and maintenance of NSSI, and determine whether compulsivity and addictive features of NSSI are potential targets for treatment
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