The impact of social context and reversal learning on error-monitoring in criminal antisocial individuals

Observational learning is based on the ability to dissociate between favorable
and unfavorable outcomes based on the actions of others. Observing errors plays
a key role in learning and adjusting one's own behavior in the future based on
un-favorable outcomes as a consequence of another individual's behavior.
Research has shown that errors are associated with the occurrence of an ERP
termed the error-related negativity (ERN), which is elicited by error
commission and negative feedback. The ERN has been found to be generated in
situations in which participants observe errors committed by a computer in a
simulation of a choice reaction time task and when observing errors committed
by other individuals. The pathologies observed in psychopaths have been linked
to deficits in the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex. An increasing body of
evidence is pointing out that the ACC shows great connectivity to the same
areas that are believed to be dysfunctional in psychopathic individuals. Thus,
functions of the ACC may have an impact on the neural network underlying
psychopathy. Another possible area of research on which the role of the ACC
might shed light on the understanding of the processes involved is reversal
learning. Reversal learning deficiencies have been linked to OFC and amygdala
dysfunction. Psychopathic individuals failed to make this reversal, suggesting
that they were less sensitive to negative feedback after an erroneous response
had been given. Taking into account that the ACC plays a role in the same
network involving reversal learning, measuring the ERN is a way to quantify to
which extend PP are less sensitive to the error-feedback involved in the task.

The first objective discussed in this proposal is an attempt to investigate the
effect of a social setting on the susceptibility of criminal psycho-pathic
individuals to cues signaling error commission. The second objective is aimed
at exploring the occurrence of the ERN when previously learned stimulus-reward
mappings are changed.

The study has a cross-sectional design with a healthy control group matched to
the patient groups on age, sex and IQ.

There are no risk associated with participation