Aberrant motor contagion of emotions in psychopathy and high-functioning autism

• Published in: Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 374 - 384
• Main Authors: Sun, Lihua, Lukkarinen, Lasse, Noppari, Tuomo, Nazari-Farsani, Sanaz, Putkinen, Vesa, Seppälä, Kerttu, Hudson, Matthew, Tani, Pekka, Lindberg, Nina, Karlsson, Henry K, Hirvonen, Jussi, Salomaa, Marja, Venetjoki, Niina, Lauerma, Hannu, Tiihonen, Jari, Nummenmaa, Lauri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Oxford University Press 20.12.2022
• Subjects: Autistic Disorder - diagnostic imaging; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain Mapping; Emotions - physiology; Empathy; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Original; psychopathy; emotion; motor cortex; autism; sociality
• ISSN: 1047-3211; 1460-2199; 1460-2199
• DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac072

Psychopathy and autism are both associated with aberrant social skills and empathy, yet only psychopaths are markedly antisocial and violent. Here, we compared the functional neural alterations underlying these two groups that both have aberrant empathetic abilities but distinct behavioral phenotypes. We studied 19 incarcerated male offenders with high psychopathic traits, 20 males with high-functioning autism, and 19 age-matched healthy controls. All groups underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while they viewed dynamic happy, angry, and disgusted faces or listened to laughter and crying sounds. Psychopathy was associated with reduced somatomotor responses to almost all expressions, while participants with autism demonstrated less marked and emotion-specific alterations in the somatomotor area. These data suggest that psychopathy and autism involve both common and distinct functional alterations in the brain networks involved in the socioemotional processing. The alterations are more profound in psychopathy, possibly reflecting the more severely disturbed socioemotional brain networks in this population.