EMOTION AND REFLEX MODULATION IN PSYCHOPATHY

拟议的研究应用了该理论的最新发展和 关于情感反应缺陷问题的情绪测量 精神变态。惊吓调制范式被用来研究 精神变态患者厌恶感和食欲反应的差异 情感刺激的处理。在正常受试者中，反射性眨眼 对突然的、强烈的探头(例如，短暂的巨大噪音)的反应是 在接触令人厌恶的幻灯片或图像期间增强，并被禁止 在接触令人愉快的刺激时。最近的研究表明， 惊吓调制的厌恶易化成分在 犯罪精神病患者：这些人表现出压抑和惊吓 在令人厌恶和愉快的刺激呈现期间的反应 相对于中性。此外，这种不寻常的模式与 精神变态的典型人格特征，但与犯罪行为无关 或者社会反常行为本身。一系列四个协调的实验是 建议实现以下目标：a)确认 惊厥调制的正常模式(即，在 对厌恶刺激的处理)在犯罪精神病患者中是不存在的， 探索这种缺陷的机制，b)比较 精神病患者和非精神病患者在想象、厌恶时的反应 情感刺激的预期和视觉呈现，以及c)到 考察社会越轨成功与人格因素的关系 预测生理、自我报告和行为的心理变态 情绪唤起的不同情境下的反应。的承诺 这项研究在于开发一种直接的、反身性的测量 罪犯的情感反应和情感变化 更好地理解犯罪和犯罪之间的关系 精神变态。

The proposed research applies recent developments in the theory and measurement of emotion to issues concerning affective response deficits in psychopathy. The startle modulation paradigm is used to investigate differences in aversive and appetitive responding in psychopaths during processing of affective stimuli. In normal subjects, the reflex blink response to a sudden, intense probe (e.g., a brief loud noise) is augmented during exposure to aversive slides or images, and inhibited during exposure to pleasant stimuli. Recent research indicates that the aversive facilitation component of startle modulation is absent in criminal psychopaths: These individuals showed inhibited startle responses during both aversive and pleasant stimulus presentations relative to neutral. Further, this unusual pattern was associated with the classic personality features of psychopathy, but not with criminality or social deviance per se. A series of four coordinated experiments is proposed to achieve the following objectives: a) to confirm that the normal pattern of startle modulation (i.e., reflex augmentation during processing of aversive stimuli) is absent in criminal psychopaths, and to explore the mechanism of this deficit, b) to compare the emotional responses of psychopaths and nonpsychopaths during imagery, aversive anticipation, and visual presentation of affective stimuli, and c) to examine the success of social deviance and personality factors of psychopathy in predicting physiological, self-report, and behavioral responses across different contexts of emotion evocation. The promise of this research lies in the development of a direct, reflexive measure of affective responding and affective change in criminal offenders, and in a greater understanding of the relationship between criminality and psychopathy.