Amygdala Hypoactivity to Fearful Faces in Boys With Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits

2008/10/15 by Alice P. Jones, Kristin R. Laurens, Catherine M. Herba +2 · 572 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Amygdala #Antisocial personality disorder #Clinical psychology #Conduct disorder #Developmental psychology #Empathy #Face Recognition and Perception #Hypoactivity #Injury prevention #Medicine #Neuroscience #Personality #Poison control #Psychiatry #Psychology #Psychopathy #Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending #Schizophrenia research and treatment #Social psychology

paper · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07071050

published in American Journal of Psychiatry 166(1), 95-102 (American Psychiatric Association)

openalex publication_date 2008/10/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

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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• Mediation of the relationship between callous-unemotional traits and proactive aggression by amygdala response to fear among children with conduct problems. [europepmc]
• Traits of empathy and anger: implications for psychopathy and other disorders associated with aggression. [europepmc]
• Validity and utility of Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): II. Externalizing superspectrum. [europepmc]

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