EMOTION AND REFLEX MODULATION IN PSYCHOPATHY

拟议的研究应用了理论和 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调查 精神病患者的厌恶反应和食欲反应的差异 情感刺激的处理。 在正常人中， 对突然的、强烈的探测的响应（例如，短暂的巨响） 在接触令人厌恶的幻灯片或图像时增强， 在暴露于令人愉快的刺激时。 最近的研究表明， 惊恐调节的厌恶易化成分在 犯罪精神病患者：这些人表现出抑制惊吓 在厌恶和愉快刺激呈现期间的反应 相对于中立。 此外，这种不寻常的模式与 精神病的典型人格特征，但不与犯罪有关 或社会越轨行为本身。 一系列四个协调的实验是 建议实现以下目标：（a）确认 惊吓调制的正常模式（即，反射增强 厌恶性刺激的处理）在犯罪精神病患者中是不存在的， 探讨这种缺陷的机制，B）比较情绪 心理变态者和非心理变态者在想象过程中的反应，厌恶 预期和情感刺激的视觉呈现，以及c） 研究成功的社会越轨和人格因素的 心理变态在预测生理、自我报告和行为方面的作用 在不同的情绪唤起情境中的反应。 的承诺 这项研究在于发展一种直接的、自反的测量方法， 罪犯的情感反应和情感变化， 更好地理解犯罪与 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.