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.