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Small, but not perfectly formed: decreased white matter concentration in boys with psychopathic tendencies

Molecular Psychiatry volume 16, pages 476–477 (2011)Cite this article

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Neuroimaging studies on adult psychopaths have shown white matter abnormalities in fronto-temporal neural circuitry critical for emotional processing, but it is not known if children who show psychopathic tendencies exhibit white matter abnormalities. In this study, we found that boys with psychopathic tendencies showed decreased white matter concentration (WMC) compared with typically developing boys. This finding suggests that psychopathic traits are characterized by atypical white matter even in childhood, possibly as a result of aberrant brain maturation.

Psychopathy, a personality disorder defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioural features, is associated with severe and persistent antisocial behaviour that emerges early in life.1 Brain imaging work on adult populations suggests that psychopathy is characterized by structural and functional brain abnormalities in fronto-temporal neural circuitry implicated in emotional processing and moral reasoning.2 Theoretical models of psychopathy suggest that it is a neurodevelopmental disorder.2, 3 Consistent with this hypothesis, we have recently found that boys with psychopathic tendencies (conduct problems coupled with callous-unemotional traits), compared with typically developing boys, had increased grey matter concentration (GMC), possibly indicative of aberrant brain maturation.4 Using the same sample, we report here the results of the first structural magnetic resonance imaging study examining white matter integrity in boys with psychopathic tendencies. A few studies of adult psychopaths have reported white matter abnormalities in the fronto-temporal areas in this population (Tiihonen et al.5; Craig et al.6). On the basis of longitudinal evidence of normal brain development showing a linear increase in white matter from childhood to adulthood,7 and in line with possible aberrant brain maturation in boys with psychopathic tendencies,4 we expected this group to show decreased WMC, as compared with the typically developing boys. We did not make specific predictions regarding the loci of these differences, although we expected some of the group differences to be located in brain areas where we had previously reported differences in GMC.4

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit, University College London, London, UK

    S A De Brito, E J McCrory & E Viding

  2. Anna Freud Centre, London, UK

    S A De Brito, E J McCrory & A P Jones

  3. Department of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK

    A Mechelli

  4. Department of Pediatric Neurology and Developmental Medicine and Experimental Pediatric Neuroimaging, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    M Wilke

  5. Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK

    A P Jones

  6. Department of Forensic Mental Health Science, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK

    S Hodgins

  7. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK

    E Viding

Authors
  1. S A De Brito
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  2. E J McCrory
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  4. M Wilke
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  5. A P Jones
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Correspondence to S A De Brito.

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De Brito, S., McCrory, E., Mechelli, A. et al. Small, but not perfectly formed: decreased white matter concentration in boys with psychopathic tendencies. Mol Psychiatry 16, 476–477 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2010.74

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