Attention network performance and psychopathic symptoms in early adolescence: an ERP study

Abstract

Reaction time (RT) and event-related potential (ERP) measures were used to examine the relationships between psychopathic symptoms and three major attention networks (alerting, orienting, and executive attention) among a community sample of youth. Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; Frick and Hare 2001) total and subscale scores were negatively correlated with ERP measures of attentional alerting, indicating that youth with psychopathic symptoms had difficulty using warning cues to prepare for upcoming targets. APSD total scores were not related to performance on measures of orienting or executive attention, although weaker executive attention was found among youth with higher scores on the Impulsivity subscale. These findings support attention-based models of psychopathy and provide evidence of specific deficits in attentional alerting among youth with psychopathic traits. Deficiencies in attentional alerting may be related to noradrenergic functioning and may have cascading effects on higher order cognitive and affective processing.

Figures

Fig. 1

a Schematic of ANT trial events, depicting a spatial cue and a left-arrow target with incongruent flankers; b possible cue conditions (no cue, central cue, lower spatial cue, upper spatial cue)

Fig. 2

The occipital (red), parietal (orange), and medial frontal (blue) electrode groups used in statistical analyses

Fig. 3

Target-locked grand-average waveforms for cue conditions at occipital site O1. Target onset occurred at time zero

Fig. 4

Target locked grand-average waveforms for incongruent and congruent flankers at Fz, Cz, and Pz. Target onset occurred at time zero

Fig. 5

Correlation between APSD Total score and the P1 alerting effect

Fig. 6

Target-locked grand average alerting waveforms for participants in the highest and lowest APSD quintiles. Waveforms are shown for occipital sites O1 and O2. Target onset occurred at time zero