High psychopathic trait females exhibit reduced startle potentiation and increased p3 amplitude. Academic Article

abstract

• While there has been steady progress in identifying psychophysiological traits associated with psychopathy, most of the existing research has been carried out using incarcerated male participants, and data that include females are particularly rare. This study examined both affective startle blink modulation and P3 amplitude in a sample of female undergraduates grouped by scores on the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R). Those scoring high for psychopathic traits lacked startle blink potentiation and demonstrated larger P3 amplitudes during auditory and visual oddball tasks. These data support the generalizability of deficient startle potentiation to non-incarcerated females with psychopathic traits, and add to a growing body of literature suggesting that psychopathic traits are associated with distinctive information-processing characteristics as indexed by P3 amplitude.

authors

• Young, Keith

published proceedings

• Behav Sci Law

altmetric score

• 1

author list (cited authors)

• Anderson, N. E., Stanford, M. S., Wan, L. i., & Young, K. A.

citation count

• 35

complete list of authors

• Anderson, Nathaniel E||Stanford, Matthew S||Wan, Li||Young, Keith A

publication date

• September 2011

publisher

• Wiley  Publisher

published in

• Behavioral Sciences and the Law  Journal

keywords

• Antisocial Personality Disorder
• Cerebral Cortex
• Electroencephalography
• Evoked Potentials
• Female
• Humans
• Personality Inventory
• Reflex, Startle

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1002/bsl.998

start page

• 649

end page

• 666

volume

• 29

issue

• 5

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bsl.998