Startle modulation in non-incarcerated men and women with psychopathic traits

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Abstract

Past research has demonstrated that individuals with psychopathic characteristics are under-responsive to aversive stimuli, however, much of this work has failed to include non-incarcerated samples, or to examine gender differences in this relationship. Additionally, few studies have examined the role of specific personality characteristics, as they relate to both psychopathic behavior and emotional responsiveness. The current study assessed emotional modulation of the startle response in a community sample of 108 men and women (99 with usable startle data) during perception of emotion-laden photographs. Consistent with previous work, men reporting high levels of psychopathy failed to show the typical increase in the startle response when exposed to aversive photographs, but only when responses were elicited relatively early in picture viewing (i.e., 2.0 s as compared to 4.5 s post-photograph onset). Additionally, both genders showed a significant effect of harm avoidance and anxiety on modulation of the startle response, such that individuals reporting low levels of each trait failed to show significant responses to aversive photographs. These results suggest that while deficits in emotional processing extend to non-incarcerated samples, the relationship may be influenced by additional factors including gender, personality, and attributes related to incarceration.

Introduction

A number of theorists have proposed that psychopathy is the result of a selective deficit in one’s ability to experience negative emotion or process threatening cues (Lykken, 1995, Patrick et al., 1993). In support of this theory, psychopaths consistently demonstrate under responsiveness to a variety of aversive stimuli (e.g., electric shock, unpleasant photographs Hare, 1965, Patrick et al., 1993), however, most studies have focused exclusively on samples of incarcerated men. Given the increasing interest in psychopathic behavior in women and non-incarcerated, potentially more “successful” psychopaths, it seems appropriate to extend investigation to community samples of men and women.

The present study examined the relationship between psychopathy, personality characteristics related to psychopathy, and affective modulation of the eye blink startle response in a community sample of men and women. The affective startle response is a highly replicable psychophysiological measure of emotional processing in humans and other animals (for review see Bradley et al., 1999, Davis et al., 1999), as evidenced by a linear trend for affective valence, whereby startle is suppressed while viewing pleasant stimuli and heightened when processing aversive stimuli. Thus, the affective startle response is thought to reflect activation of the defensive motivational system, such that a “match” between an aversive foreground stimulus (e.g., a picture of an aimed gun) and the startle response (which also is aversive) will augment the startle response, whereas, a “mismatch” (e.g., startle elicited while viewing an attractive model) will inhibit the response (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1998).

In contrast with studies of non-psychopathic controls, recent work has reported that both incarcerated (Herpertz et al., 2001, Patrick et al., 1993) and community samples (Benning et al., 2005, Vanman et al., 2003) of psychopathic men fail to show a significant augmentation of the startle response when processing aversive stimuli. However, psychopathy is believed to be composed of two distinctive factors: emotional detachment (Factor-1 Hare, 1991, p. 76); and antisocial behavior (Factor-2 Hare, 1991, p. 76), with some evidence that the relationship between psychopathy and affective modulation of the startle response is related specifically to level of emotional detachment (Benning et al., 2005, Patrick et al., 1993). Therefore, deficits in affective processing might be more parsimoniously explained by the presence of a specific personality characteristic or set of characteristics instead of a general tendency toward psychopathic behavior.

Consistent with this idea, abnormal modulation of the startle response has been linked with Factor-1 related personality characteristics, including low levels of anxiety (Corr, 2002, Sutton et al., 2002), fearfulness (Cook, Hawk, Davis, & Stevenson, 1991), and harm avoidance (Corr et al., 1997, Corr et al., 1995), with individuals endorsing low levels of these traits failing to show significant potentiation of the startle response to aversive stimuli. Conversely, little is known about the role of Factor-2 related personality characteristics. Two studies have reported that impulsivity is not significantly related to modulation of the startle response (Corr et al., 1995, Kumari et al., 1996), however, there are no published investigations of the relationship between traits such as excitement seeking or social deviance and affective modulation of the startle response.

One study has partially replicated findings of a relationship between psychopathy and deficits in affective modulation of the startle response in a sample of incarcerated women. Sutton et al. (2002) reported that women who met diagnostic criteria for psychopathy failed to show an augmentation of the startle response to aversive stimuli, however, differences were present only when startle was elicited early in picture viewing (2.0 s post stimulus onset). At a later interval (4.5 s), psychopathic women showed the typical augmentation to aversive cues. The latter finding is inconsistent with studies of male psychopaths, which reliably report a lack of startle augmentation to aversive stimuli across startle probe times, however, previous studies typically average startle data across probe time, potentially blurring effects of probe time. Therefore, elucidation of potential gender differences in the relationship between psychopathy and affective processing likely requires separate analyses based on startle probe timing.

Two studies have investigated the relationship between psychopathy and emotion modulated startle in community samples (Benning et al., 2005, Vanman et al., 2003), however, neither investigated gender differences in this relationship. The present study investigated the relationship between gender, self-reported levels of psychopathy, and individual personality characteristics in modulating the affective startle response in a community sample. Study hypotheses predicted that individuals reporting elevated levels of psychopathy would fail to show a significant augmentation of the startle response to aversive stimuli and that this deficit is specific to elevated levels of emotional detachment (i.e., high Factor-1 scores). It was further hypothesized that this effect would be replicated for the individual personality characteristics associated with Factor-1 scores (i.e., low levels of anxiety, fearfulness or harm avoidance), but not elevated Factor-2 scores (i.e., high levels of impulsivity, social deviance or excitement seeking). No gender differences were hypothesized for either set of analyses.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 108 young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 (M = 22.39 years) recruited from the community via advertisements in local newspapers and flyers posted in the community (e.g., grocery stores, bars) and at the local courthouse. Ads were designed to elicit participants with a range of psychopathic personality traits (i.e., “Are you the ‘sensitive type’?”; “Are you rebellious?”; “Ever been called ‘heartless’?”). Participants were excluded if they were not fluent in English or had

Relationship between psychopathy and personality

Analyses illustrated a significant relationship between total psychopathy score and self-reported levels of fear, harm avoidance, excitement seeking, antisociality, and impulsivity. A differential pattern of correlations between personality and the separate factors of psychopathy also was present (Table 1).

Gender differences in personality

Compared to women, men reported significantly higher levels of psychopathy (total: t(97) = 3.46, p < 0.01; PPI-1: t(97) = 3.25, p < 0.01), excitement seeking (t(97) = 2.33, p = 0.02), and antisocial

Discussion

Our findings suggest that gender, self-reported level of psychopathy, harm avoidance, anxiety, and startle probe timing all interact to influence affective modulation of the startle response in non-incarcerated individuals. Consistent with previous studies (Patrick et al., 1993, Vanman et al., 2003), men reporting high levels of psychopathy failed to show the typical augmentation of the startle response when viewing aversive stimuli. This deficit was specific to levels of emotional detachment,

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by an NIAAA fellowship (AA007462) and APA Dissertation Research Award awarded to Alicia Justus, and NIAAA Grant AA013650 awarded to Peter Finn. The authors thank Emily McCallister and Joseph McMahon for their assistance in data collection.

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