Suma Psicológica ISSN: 0121-4381 [email protected] Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz Colombia Khetrapal, Neha PSYCHOPATHY AND A MODEL FOR DISTURBED AFFECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS Suma Psicológica, vol. 15, núm. 2, septiembre, 2008, pp. 437-441 Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz Bogotá, Colombia Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=134212610009 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Psychopathy and a Model for Disturbed Affective Consciousness 437 Suma Psicológica, Vol. 15 N° 2 Septiembre de 2008, 437-442, ISSN 0121-4381 PSYCHOPATHY AND A MODEL FOR DISTURBED AFFECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS Neha Khetrapal1 Centre for Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India ABSTRACT This article deals with the interaction of emotion and consciousness. It focuses on the perception of fearful stimuli and how such a perception can have implications for psychopathy. Amygdala has been found to be lesioned in the disorder and this compromise of integrity leads to deficits in fear perception, moral socialization and curtailing of aggression. This in turn leads to deficits in adaptive behavior as amygdala is responsible for influencing motor and perceptual responses in response to a fearful stimulus. Amygdala also plays an important role in bringing a fearful stimulus, detected at the attentional periphery, to the focus of attention and awareness so that it can receive enhanced processing which is found to be deficient in psychopathy. This role is supported by its connectivity to different cortical and subcortical areas. Hence this article provides an emphasis on the disturbed affective consciousness of psychopathy and its role in adaptive behavior deficits. Key words: psychopathy; fear processing; amygdala; moral socialization; aggression; consciousness. 1 Address all correspondences to: Neha Khetrapal, Centre for Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad, Allahabad 211002, India, Phone: (91-532) 2460738, Fax: (91-532) 2460738 e- mail:[email protected] Suma Psicológica, Vol. 15 N° 2: 437-441, septiembre 2008, Bogotá (Col.) 438 Neha Khetrapal RESUMEN Este artículo tiene que ver con la interacción entre emoción y conciencia. Se enfoca en la percepción de estímulos que producen miedo y cómo dicha percepción puede estar relacionada con la psicopatía. Se ha encontrado que la amígdala se encuentra lesionada en desórdenes psicopáticos y que este compromiso de su integridad produce déficits en la percepción del miedo, la socialización moral, y en la reducción de la agresión. Esto a su vez produce déficits en la conducta adaptativa, en la medida en que la amígdala influye en las respuestas motoras y preceptúales a estímulos de miedo. La amígdala también juega un papel importante al hacer que estímu- los que producen miedo que son percibidos en la periferia se conviertan en focos de atención y conciencia de modo que puedan ser objeto de procesa- miento adicional, un proceso que resulta deficiente en la psicopatía. Este papel se ve apoyado a través de conexiones con diferentes áreas corticales y subcorticales. Este artículo se enfoca en la conciencia afectiva perturba- da típica de la psicopatía y su papel en déficits conductuales adaptativos. Palabras clave: psicopatía; procesamiento del miedo; amígdala; socializa- ción moral; agresión; conciencia. INTRODUCTION applying the description to explain the suboptimal processes in the disorder. ecently it has been argued that For simplicity, the review will only consciousness and emotion focus on fear processing. interact tremendously (Tsu- Rchiya & Adolphs, 2007). Since the A MODEL OF INTERACTION BETWEEN emotional processes interact with EMOTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS consciousness, such an interaction can also have implications for cognitive and There are some stimuli the psychiatric disorders where the perception of which is important for emotional processes have been found adaptive behavior for instance, an to be not normal. The aim of the present emotional face. Adaptive behavior article is to show what implications requires that some processing takes such an interaction can have for the place independently of attention and disorder of psychopathy. First the awareness so that attention could be interplay between consciousness and guided towards those events so that emotions will be described before these events ultimately receive Suma Psicológica, Vol. 15 N° 2: 437-441, septiembre 2008, Bogotá (Col.) Psychopathy and a Model for Disturbed Affective Consciousness 439 enhanced processing due to their cortices and the amygdala and other saliency even when those events occur structures engaged very early in outside the focus of attention. Hence, processing contribute to conscious emotional faces conveying threat experience but during a later iteration signals enjoy such privileged status of processing when the activity driven (Vuilleumier, 2002). by the stimulus can be compared with The amygdala plays an important activity driven by feedback from role in fear processing. It receives higher regions. This supports the role highly processed information from the of amygdala in bringing the fearful visual cortical pathways and also crude face detected at the periphery of information through a direct attention at the focus of attentional subcortical pathway via the thalamus and conscious processing. involving the retinocollicular and the pulvinar projections. The direct pathway provides fast signals about DISORDER OF PSYCHOPATHY potential threat in the environment According to Blair (2001), psychopathy for instance a fearful face bypassing in both childhood and adulthood, is the slow and fine analysis of the vi- based on high scores on clinically sual cortex. Amygdala also has direct based rating scales. The psychopathy- connections with the fusiform cortex screening device (PSD) for assessing and sends projections back to visual, children and for adults, the revised orbitofrontal and the medial prefrontal psychopathy checklist (PCL) is cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, generally used. Factor analyses based striatum and basal forebrain nuclei. on both the PSD and PCL reveal two These projections enable the independent factors: (1) an emotion amygdala to influence perceptual and dysfunction factor defined largely by motor processes in response to a emotional shallowness and lack of threat cue once it is identified guilt and (2) an antisocial behavior (Vuilleumier, 2002). This arrange- factor defined largely by the ment of connections can help bring the commission of a wide variety of offence threatening face into the focus of types. Socioeconomic status and IQ attention and awareness, when are correlated with scores on the an- detected at the periphery of attention. tisocial factor, but neither is It has also been shown by Pascual- associated with scores on the emotion Leone and Walsh (2001) that dysfunction factor. This happens as conscious experience depends as scores on the emotion dysfunction fac- much on the lower anatomical regions tor seem to be determined, to some as on the higher ones but the lower extent, by different influences than processing anatomical regions scores on the antisocial behavior. participate at a later point in time. Scores on the antisocial behavior fac- Thus areas like the early visual tor also decline with age but scores on Suma Psicológica, Vol. 15 N° 2: 437-441, septiembre 2008, Bogotá (Col.) 440 Neha Khetrapal the emotion dysfunction factor remain & Kochanska, 2000) and psychopaths constant with age. show deficits in both the processes Psychopaths have been shown to (Blair, 2001). suffer from amygdala lesions In order to learn that hitting another consequently showing impairments in person is bad; a representation of this processing fearful expressions (Adolphs action must be associated with an et al., 1999). Since the amygdala plays aversive unconditioned stimulus (in an important role in modulating this case, distress and fear shown by attention and consequently influencing the victim), a process that is achieved perceptual and motor responses in through aversive conditioning. Also, response to a fearful face that is detected learning to avoid committing moral at the periphery of attention after transgressions involves either bringing it into the focus of attention personally committing these or viewing for the purpose of influencing adaptive another person commit these and then behavior, it is quite possible that the being punished by the aversive psychopaths suffer from deficits in response of the victims distress; this awareness and consciousness related type of association involves instrumen- tal conditioning/passive avoidance to the experiencing of a fearful face learning (Blair, 1995). which needs to be investigated. It is Thus the psychopaths would suffer quite possible that the deficits that the from dual deficits in such a scenario. psychopathic people show in their They neither have the benefits of behavior are because their responses preconscious processing of the fearful are not modulated by the detection of face nor the full blown benefit of fearful faces. conscious processing of such faces. According to Blair (2001) fearful fa- Since the amygdala plays a role in ces serve as unconditional stimuli that conscious experience though at a later help in achieving