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Paralimbic Gray Matter Reductions in Incarcerated Adolescent Females with Psychopathic Traits

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Abstract

Psychopathy-related paralimbic and limbic structural brain abnormalities have been implicated in incarcerated adult and adolescent male samples. However, there have been few neuroimaging studies of psychopathic traits in females in general and no studies from incarcerated female youth in particular. Here we present the first study to examine the relationship between brain gray matter volumes and psychopathic traits (assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version [PCL-YV]) in a sample of maximum-security incarcerated female adolescents (N = 39; mean age = 17.6 years). Consistent with male samples, regional gray matter volumes were negatively related to psychopathic traits in female youth offenders in limbic and paralimbic areas, including orbitofrontal cortex, parahippocampal cortex, temporal poles, and left hippocampus. These results provide evidence that psychopathic traits manifest similar neural abnormalities across sex and age.

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Notes

  1. This figure is based on two factors: a) The estimated cost of all crime in the United States in 1987 was $257 billion (Cohen et al. 1994), and b) Juveniles accounted for 22 % of all arrests in that year (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1996). Considering that the annual burden of crime in today’s dollars has been estimated at $1 trillion (Anderson 1999) and individuals under 18 accounted for over 14 % of all arrests in 2009 (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2010), $56.7 billion per year is undoubtedly an underestimate.

  2. Note that including anxiety diagnosis in the analyses revealed more regions that were significantly negatively associated with psychopathic traits compared to the analyses without anxiety diagnosis.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NIMH R01 MH071896 (PI: KAK). EE was supported by NIMH NRSA F32 MH086247. We are grateful to the staff and clients (and parents) at the Youth Diagnostic and Detention Facility and the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department for their support and assistance in making this research possible.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Lora M. Cope & Kent A. Kiehl

  2. The Mind Research Network and Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Lora M. Cope, Prashanth K. Nyalakanti, Vince D. Calhoun & Kent A. Kiehl

  3. Derner Institute Psychology Department, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, USA

    Elsa Ermer

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Vince D. Calhoun

  5. Addiction Research Center and Department of Psychiatry, The University of Michigan, 4250 Plymouth Rd., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Lora M. Cope

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  1. Lora M. Cope
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Figure S1

Regional gray matter volumes negatively associated with Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV) Total scores, controlling for brain volume, age at scan, and years of regular substance use. All voxels indicated in blue color map represent regions that are significant in the whole brain at p < 0.05 and 1366-voxel extent. Coordinates are in Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space. The color bar represents t-values. Significant negative clusters can be found in lateral orbitofrontal cortex, temporal poles, and insula. There were no positive associations for this model. (PNG 246 kb)

Figure S2

Regional gray matter volumes negatively associated with Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV) Total scores, controlling for brain volume, age at scan, substance dependence, and anxiety diagnosis. All voxels indicated in blue color map represent regions that are significant in the whole brain at p < 0.05 and 1366-voxel extent. Coordinates are in Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space. The color bar represents t-values. There were no positive associations for this model. (PNG 239 kb)

Figure S3

Panel a: Regional gray matter volumes negatively associated with Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV) Factor 1 scores, controlling for brain volume, age at scan, substance dependence, anxiety diagnosis, and Factor 2 scores. Panel b: Regional gray matter volumes negatively associated with PCL-YV Factor 2 scores in females, controlling for brain volume, age at scan, substance dependence, anxiety diagnosis, and Factor 1 scores. These regions are significant in the whole brain at p < 0.05 and 1366-voxel extent. Coordinates are in Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space, and the color bar represents t-values. There were no positive associations for this model. (PNG 1213 kb)

Figure S4

Substance dependence, brain volume, age, participant sex, PCL-YV Total scores, and a participant sex by PCL-YV Total score interaction term predicted regional gray matter volume, with males and females combined into one sample (N = 230). At p < 0.05 and a 1334-voxel extent, there were no regions significantly associated with the interaction term. This scatterplot illustrates these effects in the left temporal pole, where main effects of participant sex and PCL-YV scores are significant, but the interaction is not. (PNG 58 kb)

Figure S5

Regional gray matter volume differences in male (n = 191) and female (n = 39) adolescents, controlling for brain volume and age at scan. Regions with greater gray matter volume in males are in orange/red. Regions with greater gray matter volume in females are in blue. These regions are significant in the whole brain at p < 0.05 and 1334-voxel extent. Coordinates are in Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space. The color bar represents t-values. (PNG 261 kb)

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Cope, L.M., Ermer, E., Nyalakanti, P.K. et al. Paralimbic Gray Matter Reductions in Incarcerated Adolescent Females with Psychopathic Traits. J Abnorm Child Psychol 42, 659–668 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-013-9810-4

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