• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.16-29
• /
• 2019

Background: Sex influences is important to understand behavioral manifestations in a large number of neuropsychiatric disorders. We found electrophysiological differences specifically related to the influence of sex on psychopathic traits. Methods: The resting electroencephalography (EEG) activity and low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) for the EEG spectral bands were evaluated in 38 teenagers with conduct disorder (CD). The 25 male and 13 female subjects had psychopathic traits as diagnosed using the Antisocial Process Screening Device. All of the included adolescents were assessed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria. The visually inspected EEG characteristics and the use of frequency-domain quantitative analysis techniques are described. Results: Quantitative EEG (QEEG) analysis showed that the slow-wave activities in the right frontal and left central regions were higher and the alpha-band powers in the left central and bitemporal regions were lower in the male than the female psychopathic traits group. The current source density showed increases in paralimbic areas at 2.73 Hz and decreases in the frontoparietal area at 9.37 Hz in male psychopathics relative to female psychopathics. Conclusions: These findings indicate that QEEG analysis and techniques of source localization can reveal sex differences in brain electrical activity between teenagers with CD and psychopathic traits that are not obvious in visual inspections.

• Korean Journal of Forensic Psychology
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.99-120
• /
• 2021

This study examined the differences in facial emotion processing related to psychopathic traits. On the basis of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (Lee & Park, 2008), students were divided into psychopathic trait (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. Participants performed two tasks consisted of negative(angry, fear, sad) and neutral faces. Event-related potentials(EPRs) were recorded when participants categorized gender in the implicit task and emotion in the explicit task. We analyzed the late positive potentials(LPP) amplitude to investigate differences in emotion processing between psychopathic trait group and control group. In the implicit task, there was no significant difference in both groups. However, there was a significant interaction between emotion and group at the frontocentral region in the explicit task. The psychopathic trait group showed greater LPP amplitudes for the neutral faces than for the negative faces, whereas the control group showed similar LPP amplitudes for the neutral and negative faces at the frontocentral site. These results might reflect the abnormalities in emotional processing in individuals with psychopathic traits.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.149-155
• /
• 2011

Objectives: The current study investigated the personality characteristics of parents of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), which is commonly used in clinical medicine. Methods: Participants were 117 parents of children with ADHD (96 boys and 21 girls) and 77 parents of comparison children (50 boys and 27 girls), who completed the Korean version of the MMPI. Results: The MMPI scores of the fathers of ADHD children were significantly higher on the Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), Masculinity-Femininity (Mf), Paranoia (Pa), and Psychasthenia (Pt) scales than the comparison group's were. In addition, the mothers of ADHD children had higher MMPI scores on the traits of Hypochondriasis (Hs), Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), and Schizophrenia (Sc) than the comparisong roup had, but were not significantly higher. Conclusion: The fathers of ADHD children might be antisocial, irresolute, passive, paranoid, and anxious. In addition, mothers of ADHD children might have hypochondriacal, antisocial, and/or psychological confusional traits, but these were not be significantly high. These results suggest that the psychopathology of parents of ADHD children might correlate with their children's ADHD.