Amygdala Hypoactivity to Fearful Faces in Boys With Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Although early-onset conduct problems predict both psychiatric and health problems in adult life, little research has been done to index neural correlates of conduct problems. Emerging research suggests that a subgroup of children with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits may be genetically vulnerable to manifesting disturbances in neural reactivity to emotional stimuli indexing distress. Using functional MRI, the authors evaluated differences in neural response to emotional stimuli between boys with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits and comparison boys. METHOD: Seventeen boys with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits and 13 comparison boys of equivalent age (mean=11 years) and IQ (mean=100) viewed blocked presentations of fearful and neutral faces. For each face, participants distinguished the sex of the face via manual response. RESULTS: Relative to the comparison group, boys with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits manifested lesser right amygdala activity to fearful faces. CONCLUSIONS: This finding is in line with data from studies of adults with antisocial behavior and callous-unemotional traits (i.e., psychopaths), as well as from a recent study of adolescents with callous-unemotional traits, and suggests that the neural substrates of emotional impairment associated with callous-unemotional antisocial behavior are already present in childhood.
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Hypo-reactivity of the right amygdala to fearful faces and to theory of mind judgments was reported for children with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits.
“On the contrary, hypo-reactivity of the right amygdala to fearful faces66 and to theory of mind judgments67 was reported for children with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits.”
Reduced functional amygdala activity was found when children with conduct problems viewed emotional faces.
“Similarly, reduced functional amygdala activity was found when children with conduct problems viewed emotional faces (Jones et al, 2009).”
From Deviations from the expectable environment in early childhood and emerging psychopathology (2015) · cites this paper as Jones et al, 2009
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- Authors
- Jones, A. P., Laurens, K. R., Herba, C. M., Barker, G. J., & Viding, E.
- Venue
- American Journal of Psychiatry
- Published
- 2009-01
- Volume
- 166
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 95-102
- ISSN
- 0002-953X (ISSN-L)
- 1535-7228
- OpenAlex
- W2126667486
- Cited by
- 564
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 70 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 45 · 2014: 47 · 2013: 63 · 2012: 45
- FWCI
- 24.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Goldsmiths Research Online (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (MRD 12-73)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- conduct problems, callous-unemotional traits, amygdala, fearful faces, emotional face processing, antisocial behavior, childhood, boys
- MeSH terms
- Amygdala, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Child, Diseases in Twins, Dominance, Cerebral, Empathy, Facial Expression, Fear, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Personality Assessment, Reaction Time, Reference Values, Conduct Disorder
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