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Somatic Markers and Response Reversal: Is There Orbitofrontal Cortex Dysfunction in Boys with Psychopathic Tendencies?

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Abstract

This study investigated the performance of boys with psychopathic tendencies and comparison boys, aged 9 to 17 years, on two tasks believed to be sensitive to amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex functioning. Fifty-one boys were divided into two groups according to the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD, P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, in press) and presented with two tasks. The tasks were the gambling task (A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) and the Intradimensional/Extradimensional (ID/ED) shift task (R. Dias, T. W. Robbins, & A. C. Roberts, 1996). The boys with psychopathic tendencies showed impaired performance on the gambling task. However, there were no group differences on the ID/ED task either for response reversal or extradimensional set shifting. The implications of these results for models of psychopathy are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, England

    R. J. R. Blair, E. Colledge & D. G. V. Mitchell

  2. Department of Psychology, University College London, London, England

    R. J. R. Blair, E. Colledge & D. G. V. Mitchell

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  1. R. J. R. Blair
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  2. E. Colledge
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Blair, R.J.R., Colledge, E. & Mitchell, D.G.V. Somatic Markers and Response Reversal: Is There Orbitofrontal Cortex Dysfunction in Boys with Psychopathic Tendencies?. J Abnorm Child Psychol 29, 499–511 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012277125119

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