Deficits in emotional reactivity and recognition have been reported in psychopathy. Impaired attention to the eyes along with amygdala malfunctions may underlie these problems. Here, we investigated how different facets of psychopathy modulate the visual exploration of facial expressions by assessing personality traits in a sample of healthy young adults using an eye-tracking based face perception task. Fearless Dominance (the interpersonal-emotional facet of psychopathy) and Coldheartedness scores predicted reduced face exploration consistent with findings on lowered emotional reactivity in psychopathy. Moreover, participants high on the social deviance facet of psychopathy ('Self-Centered Impulsivity') showed a reduced bias to shift attention towards the eyes. Our data suggest that facets of psychopathy modulate face processing in healthy individuals and reveal possible attentional mechanisms which might be responsible for the severe impairments of social perception and behavior observed in psychopathy.
Pubmed ID: 27016126 RIS Download
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Portal on how the experiences of early childhood are incorporated into the structures of the developing brain, and how, in turn, those changes in the structures of the brain influence behavior. The network explores how knowledge of brain development can guide us in understanding of behavioral development and vice versa. It focuses specifically on sensitive periods and neural plasticity, the reciprocal phenomena whereby (a) the brain is negatively affected if certain experiences fail to occur within a certain time period, and (b) the brain is altered by experience at virtually any point in the life span. Here we consider not only how the structure of experience is incorporated into the structure of the brain, but also how this knowledge can influence the decisions we make about intervening in the lives of children. Research and other projects conducted by the Network fall into four broad categories: * Effects of early experience on brain development * New methods for studying brain-behavior relations * Comparative studies of early brain-behavioral development * Impact on public policy: Educating educators and the media RESOURCES NimStim Face Stimulus Set The Research Network on Early Experience and Brain Development has developed a battery of 646 facial expression stimuli for use in its own and other studies of face and emotion recognition. Images include the following expressions, displayed by a variety of models of various genders and races: fearful, happy, sad, angry, surprised, calm, neutral, disgusted. They are making these stimuli available to the public free of charge with registration and acceptance of the terms and conditions to use the stimulus set.
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