Neuron
Volume 95, Issue 1, 5 July 2017, Pages 221-231.e4
Journal home page for Neuron

Article
Disrupted Prefrontal Regulation of Striatal Subjective Value Signals in Psychopathy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.06.030Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Highlights

  • Ventral striatal subjective value signals are amplified in incarcerated psychopaths

  • Medial cortico-striatal intrinsic connectivity is weak in psychopathic individuals

  • Cortico-striatal regulation of striatal activation is disrupted in psychopathy

  • Diminished cortico-striatal regulation is associated with more criminal convictions

Summary

Psychopathy is a personality disorder with strong links to criminal behavior. While research on psychopathy has focused largely on socio-affective dysfunction, recent data suggest that aberrant decision making may also play an important role. Yet, the circuit-level mechanisms underlying maladaptive decision making in psychopathy remain unclear. Here, we used a multi-modality functional imaging approach to identify these mechanisms in a population of adult male incarcerated offenders. Psychopathy was associated with stronger subjective value-related activity within the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) during inter-temporal choice and with weaker intrinsic functional connectivity between NAcc and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). NAcc-vmPFC connectivity strength was negatively correlated with NAcc subjective value-related activity; however, this putative regulatory pattern was abolished as psychopathy severity increased. Finally, weaker cortico-striatal regulation predicted more frequent criminal convictions. These data suggest that cortico-striatal circuit dysregulation drives maladaptive decision making in psychopathy, supporting the notion that reward system dysfunction comprises an important neurobiological risk factor.

Keywords

psychopathy
reward
self-control
delay discounting
functional connectivity
striatum
ventromedial prefrontal cortex
cortico-striatal
antisocial
value-based decision making

Cited by (0)

8

Lead Contact