Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Apr:24:84-92.
doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2017.02.008. Epub 2017 Feb 27.

Amygdala reactivity predicts adolescent antisocial behavior but not callous-unemotional traits

Affiliations

Amygdala reactivity predicts adolescent antisocial behavior but not callous-unemotional traits

Hailey L Dotterer et al. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2017 Apr.

Erratum in

  • Erratum.
    Erratum. Erratum. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2020 Oct;45:100842. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100842. Epub 2020 Aug 28. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2020. PMID: 32868240 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

Recent neuroimaging studies have suggested divergent relationships between antisocial behavior (AB) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits and amygdala reactivity to fearful and angry facial expressions in adolescents. However, little work has examined if these findings extend to dimensional measures of behavior in ethnically diverse, non-clinical samples, or if participant sex, ethnicity, pubertal stage, and age moderate associations. We examined links between amygdala reactivity and dimensions of AB and CU traits in 220 Hispanic and non-Hispanic Caucasian adolescents (age 11-15; 49.5% female; 38.2% Hispanic), half of whom had a family history for depression and thus were at relatively elevated risk for late starting, emotionally dysregulated AB. We found that AB was significantly related to increased right amygdala reactivity to angry facial expressions independent of sex, ethnicity, pubertal stage, age, and familial risk status for depression. CU traits were not related to fear- or anger-related amygdala reactivity. The present study further demonstrates that AB is related to increased amygdala reactivity to interpersonal threat cues in adolescents, and that this relationship generalizes across sex, ethnicity, pubertal stage, age, and familial risk status for depression.

Keywords: Amygdala; Antisocial behavior; Callous-unemotional traits; Threat; fMRI.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Summary Of Data Analytic Steps In Aim 1. In Step 1 (Panels A and B) separate models were run for antisocial behavior (AB) versus callous-unemotional (CU) traits that included all covariates and all amygdala contrasts. In Step 2 (Panel C) a model was run that included both AB and CU traits, as well as all covariates and all amygdala contrasts.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Antisocial Behavior (AB) Was Related To Increased Right Amygdala Reactivity Specifically To Angry Facial Expressions In A Sample Of 220 Adolescents. +p < 0.10, *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001. N = 220. Only relationships that were significant (black) or trend-level (grey) are depicted. Sex, ethnicity, pubertal maturity, age, familial risk for depression, and internalizing symptoms were included as covariates.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Increased Right Amygdala Reactivity To Angry Facial Expressions Was Related To Increased Antisocial Behavior (AB). Panel A: Functional cluster for right amygdala reactivity to angry facial expressions > shapes. The threshold is set at p < 0.05 family-wise error corrected for the right amygdala region of interest. The color bar is showing T-values. Panel B: Example of facial expression affect matching stimuli used in the amygdala reactivity paradigm. Panel C: Zero-order relationship between AB and increased right amygdala reactivity to angry facial expressions in the 116 adolescents who had both neuroimaging and behavioral data.

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association . fifth edition. American Psychiatric Association; Washington, DC: 2013. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM-5)
    1. Amunts K., Kedo O., Kindler M., Pieperhoff P., Mohlberg H., Shah N. Cytoarchitectonic mapping of the human amygdala: hippocampal region and entorhinal cortex: intersubject variability and probability maps. Anat. Embryol. (Berl.) 2005;210:343–352. - PubMed
    1. Baskin-Sommers A., Curtin J., Newman J. Specifying the attentional selection that moderates the fearlessness of psychopathic offenders. Psychol. Sci. 2011;2:226–234. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Blair R.J.R., Leibenluft E., Pine D.S. Conduct Disorder and callous–unemotional traits in youth. New Engl. J. Med. 2014;371:2207–2216. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Blonigen D.M., Hicks B.M., Krueger R.F., Patrick C.J., Iacono W.G. Continuity and change in psychopathic traits as measured via normal-range personality: a longitudinal-biometric study. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 2006;115:85–95. - PMC - PubMed