Intelligence and psychopathy: a correlational study on insane female offenders.

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of a significant relationship between psychopathic traits and intelligence is still open to debate. Most of the relevant information has been obtained from crystallized IQ tests or on psychopathic male offenders. In this study we hypothesized a negative correlation between psychopathic traits and fluid intelligence on a sample of criminal female in-patients. METHOD: We carried out a correlational study on a selected sample of 56 criminal female offenders. Variables that were measured include the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) total score (and, separately, the scores from its four subscales: Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle and Antisocial) and fluid IQ measured by Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM). RESULTS: Pearson's correlation between RPM IQ and total PCL-R score was negative (r(54) = -0.55, p < 0.001); women with greater psychopathy traits (total PCL-R score) had lower IQ scores. Negative correlations were also found between IQ and the four PCL-R subscales, Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle and Antisocial (r(54) = -0.35, p < 0.01, r(54) = -0.52, p < 0.001, r(54) = -0.53, p < 0.001, and r(54) = -0.49, p < 0.001 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate a general negative relationship between PCL-R and IQ, equally distributed across the four subcomponents of the psychopathic trait, and support the view that unsuccessful psychopathic women have poor planning and are unable to foresee and represent future consequences of their actions.

Inverted EEG theta lateralization in dyslexic children during phonological processing.

The phonological deficit hypothesis of dyslexia has been investigated in the present research by analysing language-related lateralization of the EEG theta band in a sample of dyslexic children. To this aim, a paradigm based on word-pair visual presentation was used in which the same words were processed in Semantic and Phonological tasks. Theta band amplitude, a cortical index that has been related to working memory processing, was analysed during four different phases of word elaboration, thus allowing to measure also the temporal dynamics of word reading/encoding in the verbal working memory. Control subjects showed a specific (and therefore efficient) task-related and time-dependent cortical activation: a peak of theta activity during word reading was found that decayed during the next inter stimulus interval. Furthermore, during word presentation in the Phonological task, theta amplitude was greater on the left hemisphere. Dyslexics evidenced an altered pattern of theta activation both in the temporal dimension and in the cortical space: their peak of activity was delayed to the first inter stimulus interval after word offset and was shifted to the right hemisphere throughout the whole epoch of Phonological task and in two phases of the Semantic task. Analysis of alpha band failed to replicate the complex pattern of lateralization found for theta band in the two groups, a result that suggests a specific functional role of theta band, which cannot be interpreted as a simple marker of cortical inhibition. Results point to a deficit, in dyslexic children, to recruit left hemisphere structures for the elaboration of the phonological component of the verbal working memory. This deficit was marked by a different, unspecific and dysfunctional hemispherical asymmetry of theta activation to language, a deficit that involved also the time course of phonological linguistic elaboration.

Unitary attention in callosal agenesis.

The interhemispheric organisation of two specific components of attention was investigated in three patients affected by partial or complete agenesis of the corpus callosum. A visuospatial component of attention was explored using a visual search paradigm in which target and distractors were displayed either unilaterally within a single visual hemifield, or bilaterally across both visual hemifields in light of prior work indicating that split-brain patients were twice as fast to scan bilateral displays compared to unilateral displays. A central component of attention was explored using a psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm in which two visual stimuli were presented laterally at various stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), with each stimulus associated with a different speeded two-alternative choice task. The stimulus-response compatibility in the second task was systematically manipulated in this paradigm, in light of prior work indicating that split-brain patients exhibited a close-to-normal PRP effect (i.e., slowing of the second response as SOA is decreased), with, however, abnormally decreasing effects of the manipulation of the response mapping on the second task speed as SOA was decreased. The present results showed that, although generally slower than normals in carrying out the two tasks, the performance of each of the three acallosal patients was formally equivalent to the performance of a matched control group of normal individuals. In the visual search task, the search rate of the acallosal patients was the same for unilateral and bilateral displays. Furthermore, in the PRP task, there was more mutual interference between the lateralised tasks for the acallosal patients than that evidenced in the performance of the matched control group. It is concluded that the visuospatial component and the central component of attention in agenesis of the corpus callosum are interhemispherically integrated systems.

Cortical plasticity of spatial stimulus-response associations: electrophysiological and behavioral evidence.

Right-handed subjects tend to respond faster to stimuli presented in the visual hemifield that spatially corresponds to the responding hand. In a typical Simon task, response is based on a non-spatial salient feature of the stimulus (e.g. color) whereas its position must be ignored. However, the spatial position of the stimulus interferes with the processing of the salient characteristic. Subjects are significantly faster when stimulus side and response side correspond (corresponding condition) than when they do not (non-corresponding condition). We have previously shown with behavioral experiments that, when subjects practice reversed contingencies (that is, spatially incompatible trials) in a session preceding the Simon task, they show a long-term retention of these associations, resulting in the disappearance of the latency cost typically observed in non-corresponding trials. Here we show, by means of the lateralized readiness potential, that the neural correlate of such behavioral plasticity is an increase in premotor cortex activation during preparation of non-corresponding responses. This effect showed a marked left-right asymmetry which suggests an important role of subjects' handedness. Our results demonstrate that humans can learn in a single session to reverse relatively stable stimulus-response associations.

Psychophysiological stress responses in amputees with and without phantom limb pain.

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that phantom limb pain amputees show a different pattern of psychophysiological reactivity to stress compared with painfree amputees. Six phantom limb pain (PLP) and five painfree upper-extremity amputees were administered two groups of tasks: stressful and relaxing. The measured dependent variables were skin temperature recorded at both stump and intact site, heart rate, blood pressure, subjective pain and stress ratings. Phantom limb pain patients were characterized by higher stump temperature compared with phantom limb painfree patients. This effect was observed during the whole recording. Consistently with the between-subjects effect, when PLP patients exhibited higher skin temperature (during relaxation, compared with during stressful tasks), they perceived more pain. The experiment showed higher cardiovascular reactivity in PLP patients, specifically to the stressful free-speech task, which focused on recollection of the amputation event. As compared with the painfree patients, during the personal stressor, PLP patients' heart rate and systolic blood pressure increased, indicating a greater sympathetic response. Results indicate that peripheral factors, such as stump temperature reliably differentiate PLP from painfree patients. Moreover, the clear cardiovascular hyperreactivity observed in PLP patients during their report of amputation suggests that PLP is associated with a long-term emotional memory for the painful experience of that event. These results are consistent with most reports in the literature relating phantom pain development to the experience of preamputation pain.

Cardiac responses associated with affective processing of unpleasant film stimuli.

The autonomic basis of cardiac reactions to unpleasant film stimuli was investigated. Film clips depicting major surgery, threats of violence, and neutral material were presented to 46 subjects. Self-report measures of emotion were obtained, as well as heart rate, respiration rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, T-wave amplitude and skin conductance level. Resting vagal tone was estimated in a paced breathing task prior to film viewing. Spontaneous blink rate was also taken as a measure of visual engagement during film viewing. Coherent increases in sympathetic activation accompanied the film containing violent threats, whereas the surgery film yielded greater electrodermal activation, as well as heart rate deceleration and T-wave increase. These data support the hypothesis of differential autonomic response patterns to specifically unpleasant material. As compared with threat and neutral films, greater blink rate inhibition was observed during the surgery film. Individual differences in parasympathetic cardiac control measured at rest were able to discriminate cardiac response patterns during film viewing.

EEG brain mapping of phonological and semantic tasks in Italian and German languages.

OBJECTIVES: Event-related potential correlates of phonological encoding - as compared with lexical access and semantic categorization - were measured in two studies involving two groups of 14 German and 14 Italian subjects. METHODS: A two stimulus reaction time paradigm was used. Stimulus pairs presented one-by-one with 2 s inter-stimulus intervals (ISI) had to be matched with respect to lexical identity (word-picture) in a word comprehension task or with respect to the phonological representative of objects in a rhyming task. A semantic categorization task was added for the Italian sample. In both studies, the EEG was recorded from 26 scalp electrodes according to the 10-20 system. The slow negative potential during the ISI (CNV) was determined as the electrocortical correlate of preparation for and activation of the specific language-related task. RESULTS: In both samples, phonological encoding (rhyming) evoked a more pronounced CNV over the left- compared with the right-frontal area, while less lateralized central dominance of the CNV was found in the word comprehension task. Semantic categorization was accompanied by the least asymmetry of activity. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that the different degree of asymmetry induced by phonological and semantic processing may be determined from the scalp distribution of slow cortical potentials with cross-lingual reliability.

Emotional impairment after right orbitofrontal lesion in a patient without cognitive deficits.

The present study describes a patient, M.L., with right orbitofrontal lesion, who showed no impairment on main neuropsychological tests, including those measuring frontal functions. Nevertheless, he had deeply affected emotional responses. In line with Damasio's work, the patient had lower skin conductance during the projection of a standardized set of emotional slides. Furthermore, he showed altered facial expressions to unpleasant emotions, displaying low corrugator supercilii electromyographical activity associated with reduced recall of unpleasant stimuli. During a task focusing on imagery of emotional situations, M.L.'s heart rate and skin conductance responses were affected during both pleasant and unpleasant conditions. Facial expressions to unpleasant imagery scripts were also impaired. Thus, the orbitofrontal cortex proved to play a critical role in retrieval of psychophysiological emotional patterns, particularly to unpleasant material. These results provide the first evidence that orbitofrontal lesions are associated with emotional impairment at several psychophysiological levels.

Conditioned responses elicited by experimentally produced cues for smoking.

Several theories of drug-craving postulate that a signal for drug elicits conditioned responses. However, depending on the theory, a drug cue is said to elicit drug similar, drug compensatory, positive motivational, and negative motivational effects. Since animal data alone cannot tease apart the relative importance of different cue-related processes in the addict, we developed and examined a model of drug cues in the human based on a two-sound, differential conditioning procedure using smoking as the reinforcer. After multiple pairings of a sound with smoking, there was a preference for the smoking cue on a conditioned preference test. The acute effects of smoking (increased heart rate, respiration rate, skin conductance level, skin conductance fluctuations, EEG beta power and trapezius EMG, decreased alpha power) were not affected by the smoking cue, although subjects drew more on their cigarette in the presence of the smoking cue than in the presence of a control cue. Moreover, the cue did not change baseline behaviour except for a possible increase in EEG beta power and an increase in trapezius EMG at about the time when smoking should have occurred. The findings confirm the value of experimental models of drug cues in the human for comparing different cue phenomena in the dependent individual. They indicate that an acquired signal for drug in the human may elicit incentive motivational effects and associated preparatory motor responses in addition to possible conditioned tolerance.

The influence of low blood pressure and baroreceptor activity on pain responses.

The influence of baroreceptor modulation on pain perception has been extensively studied in normal and hypertensive subjects, but not in hypotensive subjects. The present experiment was performed to verify the following hypotheses: 1. Hypotensive subjects exhibit an increased pain response following baroreceptor activation compared to normals; 2. unlike the hypotensives, normal subjects, with normal baroreceptor reflexes, would learn to choose more often the baroreceptor activation condition compared to the opposite condition, during painful stimulation; 3. sensory and pain thresholds are correlated with blood pressure. The subjects (39 men), divided according to low and normal blood-pressure groups, participated in an experiment in which electrically-induced pain ratings and pain-evoked potentials were measured. Baroreceptor manipulation was performed by means of the PRES procedure. Whereas hypotensive subjects did not perceive any pain difference between the two baroreceptor conditions, activation and inhibition, normotensive men were able to perceive the baroreceptor activation condition as less painful. Similarly to subjective ratings, pain-evoked potentials of the low blood-pressure group showed a reversed trend compared to normals: larger somatosensory evoked potentials (N150-P260) to the baroreceptor activation condition and the opposite to the baroreceptor deactivation condition. Furthermore, results showed a negative correlation between diastolic blood pressure and sensory perception threshold, and a positive correlation between systolic pressure and pain threshold. Contrary to expectations, the rate of choice of baroreceptor conditions during painful stimulation did not show, in either group, any preference for baroreceptor activation.

The influence of affective factors on time perception.

Several studies have suggested that both affective valence and arousal affect the perception of time. However, in previous experiments, the two affective dimensions have not been systematically controlled. In this study, standardized photographic slides rated for emotional valence and arousal were projected to two groups of subjects for 2, 4, and 6 sec. One group of subjects estimated the projection duration on an analog scale, whereas the second group of subjects reproduced the intervals by pushing a button. Heart rate and skin conductance responses were also recorded during stimulus presentation as indices of attention and arousal. Time estimation results showed neither a main effect of valence nor a main effect of arousal. A highly significant valence x arousal interaction affected duration judgments. For low-arousal stimuli, the duration of negative slides was judged relatively shorter than the duration of positive slides. Fog high-arousal stimuli, the duration of negative slides was judged longer than the duration of positive slides. The same interaction pattern was observed across judgment modalities. These results are interpreted in terms of a model of action tendency, in which the level of arousal controls two different motivational mechanisms, one emotional and the other attentional.

Visual evoked potentials, heart rate responses and memory to emotional pictorial stimuli.

Although the effects of emotional stimuli on event-related cortical potentials, heart rate, and memory have been extensively studied, the association of these variables in a single study has been neglected. The influence of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral photographic slides on visual evoked potentials (VEPs), heart rate responses, and free recall, was investigated in 20 normal subjects. VEPs were recorded from Cz and Pz locations, and analyses were performed on both amplitudes and latencies of identifiable endogenous peaks (P2, N2 and P3), and mean amplitude in the 100-200-ms, 400-600-ms, and 600-900-ms latency ranges. An emotional effect was present on VEPs starting from about 282 ms on, as revealed by the N2, P3, and late components. Both pleasant and unpleasant slides yielded larger cortical positivity as compared to neutral ones. Peak latencies did not show any emotional effect. Heart rate data showed a deceleratory response that was larger to unpleasant slides. Free recall of the projected slides showed a better performance for emotional slides compared to neutral ones. VEPs and memory data showed the same pattern: both pleasant and unpleasant slides induced larger positivity in the event-related potentials and were better remembered than neutral slides. Positive correlations were found between the late negative VEPs component (600-900 ms), recorded from Cz, and heart rate deceleration (r = 0.62), and between P3 (at Pz location) and the number of remembered slides (r = 0.53).

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia in blood phobic subjects.

12 blood-phobic subjects, selected according to the Fear Survey Schedule and the Mutilation Questionnaire, and 50 control subjects performed a paced respiration task during which heart rate and respiration were recorded. Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) was analyzed as an autonomic index of vagal influence on the heart. Analysis showed a larger RSA in the blood-phobic group than the controls and points to a difference in vagal activity at rest between the groups.

Somatotosensory evoked potentials during baroreceptor stimulation in chronic low back pain patients and normal controls.

Nineteen chronic low back pain patients (aged 19-63) and 17 controls (aged 20-41) received electrical pain stimuli during manipulation of their carotid baroreceptors. The non-invasive mechanical manipulation of baroreceptors, using the PRES technique (Phase Related External Suction), simulates the end-effects of phasic blood pressure changes. This technique was developed to assess pain responses induced by changes in blood pressure without the typical shortcomings of pharmacological manipulation or lack of a control condition. During maximum baroreceptor activity, there was an unexpected increase in the amplitude of the somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) elicited by the electrical pain stimuli condition (N150-P260 peak-to-peak). In most other studies the opposite effect was found, with decreased pain responses during maximum baroreceptor activity. The chronic pain group reported greater pain during highest baroreceptor activation than did the controls. In addition, the chronic pain group showed lower diastolic blood pressure. To determine whether pain and baroreceptor responses observed in the chronic pain group depended on lower blood pressure levels, a second experiment with a non-clinical sample was performed. Results showed that lower tonic blood pressures are associated with greater baroreceptor activity amplifying pain, while higher blood pressure is associated with pain dampening during high baroreceptor activity. Data suggested that the differences in pain responses found in low back pain patients were associated with their lower tonic blood pressure levels. It is proposed that in general, lower blood pressures may be associated with greater pain during baroreceptor activation.

Startle reflex and emotion modulation impairment after a right amygdala lesion.

In the present study, startle responses during resting states as well as during the presentation of a set of emotive slides were recorded from a 32-year-old male patient with a rare localized lesion of the right amygdala. The startle reflex is a response modulated by affective states: it has been reliably used in the literature to measure the aversiveness of emotive stimuli. The animal literature has shown that the circuit of this reflex is directly influenced by amygdala projections. The startle responses of the patient were compared with those of eight age-matched normal subjects. The patient's startle amplitudes showed an overall impaired response and an inhibited reflex contralateral to the lesion. In addition, he failed to show the typical startle potentiation induced by an aversive emotive background. The data confirm, in the human, previous results from the literature in other species on amygdala involvement in startle and emotional responses. Furthermore, the observation of the importance of the right amygdala in the modulation of emotion is consistent with the hypothesis of right hemisphere specialization for aversive emotions. The results are discussed in the context of the literature on human amygdala lesions.

Emotional information processing and visual evoked brain potentials.

Visual evoked potentials to emotional slides presented for 2 sec. were investigated in 13 subjects. 73 emotional slides (pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral) were selected from a standardized set of photographic slides, the 1988 International Affective Picture System of Lang, Ohman, and Vaitl Visual evoked potentials were recorded from three head locations, frontal, central and parietal (Fz, Cz, and Pz). Analyses were performed in the two latency ranges: 300-400 msec. and 400-500 msec. Analyses showed an arousal effect, as indicated by a quadratic trend, indicating that emotional slides (both pleasant and unpleasant) gave higher cortical positivity than neutral ones, for all components. In addition, in the two latency epochs, larger positivities were found at Pz, compared to Fz and Cz, whereas Fz and Cz did not differ from each other.

A gated pathway for electrophoretic Na+ fluxes in rat liver mitochondria. Regulation by surface Mg2+.

Addition of EDTA to mitochondria incubated aerobically in a phosphate-supplemented medium containing Na+ ions results in activation of cation uptake which is accompanied by membrane depolarization and stimulation of respiration. The same results are obtained in media containing Li+ but not K+, indicating that this pathway for cation transport is selective. The activation of Na+ transport is not accompanied by changes of matrix Mg2+, indicating that cation transport is controlled by surface-bound rather than intramitochondrial Mg2+. Na+ transport in respiring mitochondria is competitively inhibited by Mg2+ with a Ki in the nanomolar range. A Na+ current can also be induced by a K+ diffusion potential in the absence of respiration. The K(+)-diffusion-driven Na+ current has the same magnitude in the absence or presence of inorganic phosphate, suggesting that Na+ transport is mediated by Na+ uniport rather than by electrogenic nNa+/H+ antiport with n greater than 1. Analysis of the flow/force relationship indicates that the putative Na+ uniporter has a conductance of about 0.2 nmol Na+ x mg protein-1 x min-1 x mV-1, and that it is active only when the membrane potential exceeds about 150 mV.

Activation of latent K+ uniport in mitochondria treated with the ionophore A23187.

Addition of A23187 plus EDTA to energized mitochondria in KCl medium determines a rapid osmotic swelling due to K+ uptake. The swelling is fully reversed by uncoupler, is stimulated by quinine, and is accompanied by membrane depolarization and increased rate of respiration. A23187-treated mitochondria passively swell in K+ thiocyanate at neutral pH, under conditions where the H+-K+ antiporter appears to be silent. These data indicate that A23187 activates electrophoretic K+ flux, supporting the notion that Mg2+ depletion unmasks several ionic conductance pathways whose concerted interplay could provide a sensitive regulation of mitochondrial volume homeostasis.

Mechanism of nitrofurantoin toxicity and oxidative stress in mitochondria.

5-Nitrofuran derivatives change the inner mitochondrial membrane permeability as indicated by the transmembrane potential, the rate of spontaneous K+ efflux and the basal respiratory rate: (a) at low concentrations nitrofurantoin prevents the increase of inner membrane permeability due to hydroperoxides or to diamide; (b) at higher concentrations or after longer times of incubation, nitrofurantoin enhances the membrane damage due to hydroperoxides or to diamide; the damage due Ca2+ plus Pi is enhanced by nitrofurantoin at all concentrations; (c) higher nitrofurantoin concentrations cause membrane damage independently of the presence of hydroperoxides or of diamide. The effect of nitrofurantoin is cancelled by the addition of free-radical scavengers. The above effects of nitrofurantoin are compatible with the observations of Mason and colleagues that nitrofurantoin is reduced by a NADPH nitroreductase to a nitro anion radical which can then undergo subsequent reactions, among which are (a) initiation of a free-radical reaction chain and (b) reduction of hydroperoxides and diamide.