S59.01 - Emotional processing in conduct disorder: Data from psychophysiology and neuroimaging

Abstract

Per definition adults with antisocial personality disorder have met the diagnostic criteria of conduct disorder since adolescence at least. Those who have started to show antisocial behavior before the age of ten tend to exhibit even more severe aggressive behavior throughout early adulthood. However, conduct disorder is not a homogenous category that is characterized by a steady development towards a specific antisocial disorder in adulthood. Within the category of conduct disorder there are particularly high differences in emotional processing and an individual's capability to regulate emotions. Regarding the neurobiological correlates of emotional processing in subjects with conduct disorder, psychophysiological data suggest high stability over time with the main finding of hypoarousal in resting states and autonomous hyporeagibility to emotional stimuli. Findings from functional neuroimaging are more heterogeneous probably reflecting subtypes of antisocial disorders which are subsumed under the category of conduct disorder. Developmental research in psychiatry needs a multidimensional diagnostics including a precise psychopathological characterization and subdifferentiation. Although genetic dispositions are stable, they interact with changing psychosocial factors which take influence on the developing brain in more or less vulnerable stages.