EEG gamma activity to emotional movies in individuals with high traits of primary “successful” psychopathy

• Published in: Brain and cognition 2020-08, Vol.143, p.105599-105599, Article 105599
• Main Authors: Maffei, Antonio, Polver, Silvia, Spironelli, Chiara, Angrilli, Alessandro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affect; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Arousal; Cortex (parietal); Cortex (temporal); EEG; Electroencephalography; Emotion; Emotions; Eroticism; Fear; Humans; Male; Motion Pictures; Movie; Personality; Social behavior; Valence
• ISSN: 0278-2626; 1090-2147
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105599

•Two groups of male subjects with high vs low primary psychopathy traits were studied.•EEG gamma activity was measured during clip presentation of 5 emotional categories.•High psychopathy (HP) group felt less anxious and anguished in response to Fear clips.•HP group was also less sad, touched and anguished during Compassion excerpts.•EEG gamma to Fear in the HP group was reduced in a right fronto-parietal network. This study aimed to investigate emotional alterations in a community sample with primary psychopathic traits. Sixty males selected from a larger sample and divided in two groups, High (HP) and Low (LP) primary Psychopathy, watched 15 validated emotional movies divided in five categories (Erotic, Neutral, Fear, and the new Scenery and Compassion). Subjective responses and cortical activity in the EEG Gamma band (30–49 Hz) were recorded. Concerning self-reports, HP participants felt less anxious and anguished in response to Fear clips and less sad, touched and anguished by Compassion excerpts. Negative clips induced larger EEG Gamma activity in both groups compared to neutral and erotic movies, but Gamma activity to Fear movies was reduced in HP. This group showed also a small cortical response to positive Scenery movies, at the level of the Neutral ones. Source analysis showed in HP participants a reduced cortical activation to Fear in a large brain network, comprising the right prefrontal and temporal cortices and bilateral inferior parietal cortex. Results showed that primary psychopathy, in addition to the impaired response to Fear, was associated with a reduced response also to other specific categories of emotional stimuli, suggesting an altered affect on a broader scale.