Psychopathic traits and cardiovascular responses to emotional stimuli

The present study investigated the abnormalities of cardiovascular responses to contextual or explicit emotional stimuli with respect to the two facets of psychopathy in a Japanese undergraduate population assessed by a Japanese version of the Primary and Secondary Psychopathy Scales. In study 1, recording heart rate and fingertip skin temperature while the participants watched an unpleasant movie, we found that the participants with high tendencies toward antisocial behavior (n = 16) showed smaller reactivity than those with low tendencies toward antisocial behavior (n = 16). By contrast, in study 2, heart rate orienting responses to affective slides were recorded, and the participants with high tendencies toward emotional detachment (n = 15) showed smaller responses to unpleasant slides than those with low tendencies toward emotional detachment (n = 16). Consistent with previous studies which recorded skin conductance and startle eye blink with psychopaths, these findings using a non-institutionalized sample also suggest that affective dysfunction in psychopathy is based on two specific physiological mechanisms.