Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:48:40.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Testing neuropsychological hypotheses for cognitive deficits in psychopathic criminals: A study of global–local processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2007

DAVID S. KOSSON ,
SARAH K. MILLER ,
KATHERINE A. BYRNES  and
CATHERINE L. LEVERONI
DAVID S. KOSSON
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois
SARAH K. MILLER
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology/Neuropsychology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
KATHERINE A. BYRNES
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois
CATHERINE L. LEVERONI
Affiliation:
Psychology Assessment Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Competing hypotheses about neuropsychological mechanisms underlying psychopathy are seldom examined in the same study. We tested the left hemisphere activation hypothesis and the response modulation hypothesis of psychopathy in 172 inmates completing a global–local processing task under local bias, global bias, and neutral conditions. Consistent with the left hemisphere activation hypothesis, planned comparisons showed that psychopathic inmates classified local targets more slowly than nonpsychopathic inmates in a local bias condition and exhibited a trend toward similar deficits for global targets in this condition. However, contrary to the response modulation hypothesis, psychopaths were no slower to respond to local targets in a global bias condition. Because psychopathic inmates were not generally slower to respond to local targets, results are also not consistent with a general left hemisphere dysfunction account. Correlational analyses also indicated deficits specific to conditions presenting most targets at the local level initially. Implications for neuropsychological conceptualizations of psychopathy are considered. (JINS, 2007, 13, 267–276.)

Keywords

Personality disorderAntisocial personality disorderCrimeBehaviorReaction timeFrontal lobes
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , March 2007 , pp. 267 - 276
Copyright
© 2007 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, S.W., Damasio, H., Jones, R.D., & Tranel, D. (1991). Wisconsin Card Sorting performance as a measure of frontal lobe damage. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 13, 909–922.Google Scholar
Bernstein, A., Newman, J.P., Wallace, J.F., & Luh, K.E. (2000). Left hemisphere activation and deficient response modulation in psychopaths. Psychological Science, 11, 414–418.Google Scholar
Chapman, L.J. & Chapman, J.P. (1987). The measurement of handedness. Brain and Cognition, 6, 175–183.Google Scholar
Cleckley, H. (1976). The mask of sanity. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
Cooke, D.J., Kosson, D.S., & Michie, C. (2001). Psychopathy and ethnicity: Structural, item and test generalizability of the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) in Caucasian and African-American participants. Psychological Assessment, 13, 531–542.Google Scholar
Damasio, A.R., Tranel, D., & Damasio, H. (1990). Individuals with sociopathic behavior caused by frontal damage fail to respond autonomically to social stimuli. Behavioral and Brain Research, 41, 81–94.Google Scholar
Davidson, R.J. (2000). Affective style, psychopathology, and resilience: Brain mechanisms and plasticity. American Psychologist, 55, 1196–1214.Google Scholar
Delis, D.C., Kiefner, M.J., & Fridlund, A.J. (1988). Visuospatial dysfunction following unilateral brain damage: Dissociations in hierarchical and hemispatial analysis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 10, 421–431.Google Scholar
Dinn, W.M. & Harris, C.L. (2000). Neurocognitive function in antisocial personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 97, 173–190.Google Scholar
Duncan, J., Johnson, R., Swales, M., & Freer, C. (1997). Frontal lobe deficits after head injury: Unity and diversity of function. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 14, 713–741.Google Scholar
Fink, G.R., Halligan, P.W., Marshall, J.C., Frith, C.D., Frackowiak, R.S.J., & Dolan, R.J. (1997). Neural mechanisms involved in the processing of global and local aspects of hierarchically organized visual stimuli. Brain, 120, 1779–1791.Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. (1990). Influence of gender in schizophrenia as related to other psychopathological syndromes. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 16, 211–227.Google Scholar
Gabrieli, J.D., Poldrack, R.A., & Desmond, J.E. (1998). The role of left prefrontal cortex in language and memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 95, 906–913.Google Scholar
Gorenstein, E.E. & Newman, J.P. (1980). Disinhibitory psychopathology: A new perspective and a model for research. Psychological Review, 87, 301–315.Google Scholar
Han, S., Weaver, J.A., Murray, S.O., Kang, X., Yund, E.W., & Woods, D.L. (2002). Hemispheric asymmetry in global/local processing: Effects of stimulus position and spatial frequency. Neuroimage, 17, 1290–1299.Google Scholar
Hare, R.D. (1979). Psychopathy and laterality of cerebral function. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 605–610.Google Scholar
Hare, R.D. (1984). Performance of psychopaths on cognitive tasks related to frontal lobe function. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 133–140.Google Scholar
Hare, R.D. (2003). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ontario: Multi-Health Systems.
Hare, R.D., Clark, D., Grann, M., & Thornton, D. (2000). Psychopathy and the predictive validity of the PCL-R: An international perspective. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 18, 623–645.Google Scholar
Hare, R.D., Harpur, T.J., Hakstian, A.R., Forth, A.E., Hart, S.D., & Newman, J.P. (1990). The revised psychopathy checklist: Description, statistics, reliability, and factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 2, 338–341.Google Scholar
Hare, R.D. & Jutai, J.W. (1988). Psychopathy and cerebral asymmetry in semantic processing. Personality and Individual Differences, 9, 329–337.Google Scholar
Hare, R.D. & McPherson, L.M. (1984). Psychopathy and perceptual asymmetry during verbal dichotic listening. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 141–149.Google Scholar
Hare, R.D., Williamson, S.E., & Harpur, T.J. (1988). Psychopathy and language. In T.E. Moffitt & S.A. Mednick (Eds.), Biological contributions to crime causation (pp. 68–92). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Nijhoff Martinus.
Hart, S.D., Forth, A.E., & Hare, R.D. (1990). Performance of criminal psychopaths on selected neuropsychological tests. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 374–379.Google Scholar
Heck, E.T. & Bryer, J.B. (1986). Superior sorting and categorizing ability in a case of bilateral frontal atrophy: An exception to the rule. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 8, 313–316.Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A.B. & Redlich, F.C. (1958). Social class and mental illness. New York: Wiley.
Kawashima, R., Tanji, J., Okada, K., Sugiura, M., Sato, K., Kinomura, S., Inoue, K., Ogawa, A., & Fukuda, H. (1998). Oculomotor sequence learning: A positron emission tomography study. Experimental Brain Research, 122, 1–8.Google Scholar
Kiehl, K.A., Smith, A.M., Hare, R.D., & Liddle, P.F. (2000). An event-related potential investigation of response inhibition in schizophrenia and psychopathy. Biological Psychiatry, 48, 210–221.Google Scholar
Kosson, D.S. (1996). Psychopathy and dual-task performance under focusing conditions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105, 391–400.Google Scholar
Kosson, D.S. (1998). Divided visual attention in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders. Personality and Individual Differences, 24, 373–391.Google Scholar
Kosson, D.S., Budhani, S., Nakic, M., Chen, G., Saad, Z.S., Vythilingam, M., Pine, D.S., & Blair, R.J.R. (2006). The role of the amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate in encoding expected outcomes during learning. Neuroimage, 29, 1161–1172.Google Scholar
Kratzer, L. & Hodgins, S. (1999). A typology of offenders: A test of Moffitt's theory among males and females from childhood to age 30. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 9, 57–73.Google Scholar
Lamb, M.R. & Robertson, L.C. (1989). Do response time advantage and interference reflect the order of processing of global- and local-level information? Perception & Psychophysics, 46, 254–258.Google Scholar
Lamb, M.R., Robertson, L.C., & Knight, R.T. (1990). Component mechanisms underlying the processing of hierarchically organized patterns: Inferences form patients with unilateral cortical lesions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 471–483.Google Scholar
LaPierre, D., Braun, C.M.J., & Hodgins, S. (1995). Ventral frontal deficits in psychopathy: Neuropsychological test findings. Neuropsychologia, 33, 139–151.Google Scholar
Llanes, S. & Kosson, D.S. (2006). Divided visual attention and left hemisphere activation among psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 28, 9–18.Google Scholar
Lopez, M.L., Kosson, D.S., Weissman, D.H., & Banich, M.T. (2007). Interhemispheric integration in psychopaths. Neuropsychology, 21, 82–93.Google Scholar
Lösel, F. & Schmucker, M. (2004). Psychopathy, risk taking, and attention: A Differentiated Test of the Somatic Marker Hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 522–529.Google Scholar
Lykken, D.T. (1957). A study of anxiety in the sociopathic personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 55, 6–10.Google Scholar
Martin, E.M., Pitrak, D.L., Robertson, L.C., Novak, R.M., Mullane, K.M., & Pursell, K.J. (1995). Global/local analysis in HIV-1 infection. Neuropsychology, 9, 102–109.Google Scholar
Martin, M. (1979). Hemispheric specialization for local and global processing. Neuropsychologia, 17, 33–40.Google Scholar
Miller, G.M. & Chapman, J.P. (2001). Misunderstanding analysis of covariance. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 40–48.Google Scholar
Miller, J.D. & Lynam, D.R. (2003). Psychopathy and the five-factor model of personality: A replication and extension. Journal of Personality Assessment, 81, 168–178.Google Scholar
Miller, L. (1987). Neuropsychology of the aggressive psychopath: An integrative review. Aggressive Behavior, 13, 119–140.Google Scholar
Mitchell, D.G.V., Colledge, E., Leonard, A., & Blair, R.J.R. (2002). Risky decisions and response reversal: Is there evidence of orbito-frontal cortex dysfunction in psychopathic individuals? Neuropsychologia, 40, 2013–2022.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T.E. (1993a). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T.E. (1993b). The neuropsychology of conduct disorder. Development & Psychopathology, 5, 135–151.Google Scholar
Morgan, A.B. & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2000). A meta-analytic review of the relation between antisocial behavior and neuropsychological measures of executive function. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 113–136.Google Scholar
Mountain, M.A. & Snow, W.G. (1993). Wisconsin Card Sorting Test as a measure of frontal pathology: A review. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 7, 108–118.Google Scholar
Navon, D. (1977). Forest before trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 353–383.Google Scholar
Newman, J.P. & Kosson, D.S. (1986). Passive avoidance learning in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 252–256.Google Scholar
Newman, J.P., Patterson, C.M., & Kosson, D.S. (1987). Response perseveration in psychopaths. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 145–148.Google Scholar
Newman, J.P., Schmitt, W.A., & Voss, W.D. (1997). The impact of motivationally neutral cues on psychopathic individuals: Assessing the generality of the response modulation hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 563–575.Google Scholar
Patterson, C.M. & Newman, J.P. (1993). Reflectivity and learning from aversive events: Toward a psychological mechanism for the syndromes of disinhibition. Psychological Review, 100, 716–736.Google Scholar
Roussy, S. & Toupin, J. (2000). Behavioral inhibition deficits in juvenile psychopaths. Aggressive Behavior, 26, 413–424.Google Scholar
Schmitt, W.A., Brinkley, C.A., & Newman, J.P. (1999). Testing Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis with psychopathic individuals: Risk takers or risk averse? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 538–543.Google Scholar
Smith, E.E. & Jonides, J. (1998). Neuroimaging analyses of human working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 95, 12061–12068.Google Scholar
Smith, S.S., Arnett, P.A., & Newman, J.P. (1992). Neuropsychological differentiation of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic criminal offenders. Personality & Individual Differences, 13, 1233–1243.Google Scholar
Stevens, M.C., Kaplan, R.F., & Hesselbrock, V.M. (2003). Executive-cognitive functioning in the development of antisocial personality disorder. Addictive Behaviors, 28, 285–300.Google Scholar
Suchy, Y. & Kosson, D.S. (2005). State-dependent executive deficits among psychopathic offenders: Implications for psychopathy research and clinical neuropsychology. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 11, 311–321.Google Scholar
Sutton, S.K. & Davidson, R.J. (1997). Prefrontal brain asymmetry: A biological substrate of the behavioral approach and inhibition systems. Psychological Science, 8, 204–210.Google Scholar
Tabachnick, B.G. & Fidell, L.S. (1996). Using multivariate statistics. (3rd ed.). New York: Harper Collins.
Tremblay, L. & Schultz, W. (2000). Modifications of reward expectation-related neuronal activity during learning in primate orbitofrontal cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology, 83, 1877–1885.Google Scholar
Van Kleeck, M.H. (1989). Hemispheric differences in global versus local processing of hierarchical visual stimuli by normal subjects: New data and a meta-analysis of previous studies. Neuropsychologia, 27, 1165–1178.Google Scholar
Van Strien, J.W. & Bouma, A. (1988). Cerebral organization of verbal and motor functions in left-handed and right-handed adults: Effects of concurrent verbal tasks on unimanual tapping performance. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 10, 139–156.Google Scholar
Weber, B., Schwarz, U., Kneifel, S., Treyer, V., & Buck, A. (2000). Hierarchical visual processing is dependent on the oculomotor system. Neuroreport, 11, 241–247.Google Scholar
Welsh, G. (1956). Factor dimensions in A and R. In G.S. Welsh & W.G. Dalhstrom (Eds.), Basic readings on the MMPI in psychology and medicine (pp. 264–281). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Widiger, T.A. & Lynam, D.R. (1998). Psychopathy from the perspective of the five factor model of personality. In T. Millon, E. Simonsen, M. Birket-Smith, & R.D. Davis (Eds.), Psychopathy: Antisocial, criminal, and violent behaviors (pp. 171–187). New York: Guilford.
Yamaguchi, S., Yamagata, S., & Kobayashi, S. (2000). Cerebral asymmetry of the top-down allocation of attention to global and local features. Journal of Neuroscience, 20, RC72:1–5. Retrieved August 13, 2001, from http://jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/20/9/RC72.Google Scholar
Zachary, R.A. (1986). Shipley Institute of Living Scale: Revised manual. Los Angeles: Eastern Psychological Services.