Kids with conduct disorder, callous-unemotional
traits exhibit brain abnormality seen in adult psychopaths

Children with conduct disorder (CD) lie, steal, bully other children, frequently get into fights, and break schools’ and parents’ rules. Some children with CD also exhibit callous-unemotional traits such as a lack of empathy or guilt—traits that also are hallmarks of adult psychopathy.

Research involving adult psychopaths shows that a region of their brains—the amygdala—is under-responsive to the sight of fearful faces, suggesting a biological foundation for psychopathy. To see if the same is true of children with CD and callous-unemotional traits, Alice Jones and colleagues compared 17 boys with these problems to 13 boys with no behavior disorders. All of the children were 10 to 12 years of age.

Jones and colleagues asked both groups of children to view photos of fearful or neutral faces, and to push a button identifying each face as male or female. The researchers report that compared to boys in the control group, boys with conduct problems and elevated levels of callous-unemotional traits showed significantly less right amygdala activity when they viewed fearful faces.

The researchers say this similarity between their subjects and adult psychopaths “suggests that the neural substrates of emotional impairment associated with callous-unemotional antisocial behavior are already present in childhood.” Citing evidence that antisocial behavior in children with callous-emotional traits is strongly heritable, they conclude, “This finding raises the possibility that psychopathy may be a developmental disorder with particular personality and neurocognitive markers that can be delineated successfully in children.”

“Amygdala hypoactivity to fearful faces in boys with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits,” Alice P. Jones, Kristin R. Laurens, Catherine M. Herba, Gareth J. Barker, and Essi Viding, American Journal of Psychiatry, October 15, 2008 (epub prior to print publication). Address: Essi Viding, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, Gower St., London, WC1E 6BT, UK, e.viding@ucl.ac.uk.