Examining the effect of psychopathic traits on gray matter volume in a community substance abuse sample

Abstract

Psychopathy is believed to be associated with brain abnormalities in both paralimbic (i.e., orbitofrontal cortex, insula, temporal pole, parahippocampal gyrus, posterior cingulate) and limbic (i.e., amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulate) regions. Recent structural imaging studies in both community and prison samples are beginning to support this view. Sixty-six participants, recruited from community corrections centers, were administered the Hare psychopathy checklist-revised (PCL-R), and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Voxel-based morphometry was used to test the hypothesis that psychopathic traits would be associated with gray matter reductions in limbic and paralimbic regions. Effects of lifetime drug and alcohol use on gray matter volume were covaried. Psychopathic traits were negatively associated with gray matter volumes in right insula and right hippocampus. Additionally, psychopathic traits were positively associated with gray matter volumes in bilateral orbital frontal cortex and right anterior cingulate. Exploratory regression analyses indicated that gray matter volumes within right hippocampus and left orbital frontal cortex combined to explain 21.8% of the variance in psychopathy scores. These results support the notion that psychopathic traits are associated with abnormal limbic and paralimbic gray matter volume. Furthermore, gray matter increases in areas shown to be functionally impaired suggest that the structure-function relationship may be more nuanced than previously thought.

Figure 1

Histogram of Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) Total scores in 66 adults (36 male, 30 female; mean age: 36.9 years, SD = 7.9). Total PCL-R scores ranged from 2.1 to 36.0 (M = 18.4; SD = 8.0).

Figure 2

Regions where gray matter volume is related to PCL-R Total, Factor 1, or Factor 2, controlling for total gray matter volume, drug history, and alcohol history. Negative associations are depicted in blue colors and positive associations are depicted in red colors. Results are overlaid on a canonical high-resolution structural image and thresholded at P < 0.005, uncorrected for multiple comparisons. See tables for t-values.