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Semantic and affective processing in psychopaths: An event-related potential (ERP) study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 1999

KENT A. KIEHL ,
ROBERT D. HARE ,
JOHN J. MCDONALD  and
JOHANN BRINK
KENT A. KIEHL
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
ROBERT D. HARE
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
JOHN J. MCDONALD
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
JOHANN BRINK
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada Regional Health Center (Pacific), Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada
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Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with abnormal processing of semantic and affective verbal information. In Task 1, a lexical decision task, and in Task 2, a word identification task, participants responded faster to concrete than to abstract words. In Task 2, psychopaths made more errors identifying abstract words than concrete words. In Task 3, a word identification task, participants responded faster to positive than to negative words. In all three tasks, nonpsychopaths showed the expected event-related potential (ERP) differentiation between word stimuli, whereas psychopaths did not. In each task, the ERPs of the psychopaths included a large centrofrontal negative-going wave (N350); this wave was absent or very small in the nonpsychopaths. The interpretation and significance of these differences are discussed.

Keywords

PsychopathyLanguageEvent-related potentialsAffective processesSemantic processes
Type
Research Article
Information
Psychophysiology , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , November 1999 , pp. 765 - 774
Copyright
© 1999 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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