Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009
Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009
Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009
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<strong>EPFL</strong> <strong>Latsis</strong> <strong>Symposium</strong> <strong>2009</strong>: Understanding Violence<br />
P-40<br />
94<br />
February 11-13 <strong>2009</strong><br />
ne u r a l b a s i s o f f a c i a l e X p r e s s i o n<br />
p r o c e s s i n g in m a l e a D o l e s c e n t s w i t h<br />
e a r l y-o n s e t co n D u c t Di s o r D e r<br />
Passamonti,Luca, 1 Fairchild, Graeme 2 ; Hurford, Georgina<br />
2 ; Goodyer, Ian 2 ; Calder, Andy 1<br />
1 Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit,<br />
Cambridge, UK; 2 Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge University,<br />
Cambridge, UK<br />
Facial expressions serve key communicatory functions that critically modulate<br />
emotional behaviour. Individuals with Conduct Disorder (CD), particularly<br />
the early-onset subtype, show persistent aggressive-antisocial<br />
behaviour, and, as recently demonstrated, a marked impairment in recognizing<br />
facial expressions. It has been also suggested that this latter deficit,<br />
alongside with other dysfunctions, plays an important role in the development<br />
of the disorder. Although the neural substrate of this impairment is<br />
still poorly understood, recent data implicated both the amygdala and the<br />
ventromedial/orbitofrontal cortex (vmPFC/OFC) as key regions. In particular,<br />
hypoactive amygdala response to fearful faces has been shown in CD<br />
with psychopathic traits relative to controls.<br />
Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to further<br />
explore differences in brain activations between CD (the majority with no<br />
comorbid ADHD) and age-matched controls when viewing angry, sad, and<br />
neutral facial expressions. Our task also included null events as a low-level<br />
baseline.<br />
The amygdala, OFC, and other brain areas (superior temporal sulcus, insula,<br />
ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, intraparietal sulcus) showed reduced<br />
activation in CD relative to controls for angry vs. neutral faces. However,<br />
comparisons relative to null events showed that this effect was driven by<br />
angry and neutral expressions evoking significant but statistically equivalent<br />
activation in CD (angry=neutral), but differential level of response in<br />
controls (angry
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