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Aversive Pavlovian conditioning in psychopaths: Peripheral and central correlates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2002

HERTA FLOR ,
NIELS BIRBAUMER ,
CHRISTIANE HERMANN ,
SILVIO ZIEGLER  and
CHRISTOPHER J. PATRICK
HERTA FLOR
Affiliation:
Department of Department of Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
NIELS BIRBAUMER
Affiliation:
Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Germany Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy
CHRISTIANE HERMANN
Affiliation:
Department of Department of Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
SILVIO ZIEGLER
Affiliation:
Department of Department of Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
CHRISTOPHER J. PATRICK
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
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Abstract

Differential aversive Pavlovian conditioning with a foul odor as unconditioned stimulus (US) and neutral faces as conditioned stimuli (CS) was compared between 9 noncriminal psychopaths as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised and 12 healthy controls. Event-related potentials (ERP), heart rate, skin conductance response, corrugator EMG, and startle response potentiation as well as valence, arousal, and contingency of the CS were assessed. Whereas the healthy controls (HC) showed significant CS+/CS− differentiation, the psychopaths (PP) failed to exhibit a conditioned response although unconditioned responses were comparable between the groups. N100, P200, and P300 to the CSs revealed that psychopaths were not deficient in information processing and showed even better anticipatory responding than the HC group indicated by the terminal contingent negative variation (tCNV), that lacked, however, CS+ and CS− differentiation. These data indicate a deficit in association formation in psychopaths that may be related to deficient interaction of limbic-subcortical and cortical structures.

Keywords

PsychopathsConditioningContingent negative variationHeart rateElectromyogram
Type
Research Article
Information
Psychophysiology , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , July 2002 , pp. 505 - 518
Copyright
2002 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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