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Category: Project

Description: Psychopathic traits exist on a continuum in the general population and can be measured with the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM), defining psychopathy on three subscales: disinhibition, boldness and meanness. Impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits have shown positive correlation with ventral striatum (VS) activity during reward anticipation. It is not known whether increased activity in the VS during reward anticipation is associated with increase score in the TriPM subscales. This study aimed to investigate the potential association between VS activity during reward anticipation and TriPM subscales. This observational cross-sectional study with preclinical, experimental setting, included nine right-handed men in ages 19-41 without any contraindication for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Reward anticipation was induced with Monetary Incentive Delay Task (MIDT) during fMRI measurement for VS activity estimation. Self-reported psychopathic traits were measured with the TriPM. Reward anticipation increased activity within the VS (p=0.01). None of the TriPM subscales were statistical significantly associated with increased activity within the VS. Spearman’s correlation between VS activity and TriPM subscale scores was: disinhibition =0.49 (p=0.09); boldness =-0.69 (p=0.97); meanness =0.53 (p=0.17). We did not confirm association between VS activity and TriPM subscale scores. Thus, we could not prove that excessive reward anticipation is a crucial mechanism for any of the TriPM facets. Larger sample size is needed to examine how excessive reward anticipation affects the three TriPM facets. However, this study confirmed the feasibility of measuring activity within the VS during reward anticipation in our adapted version of the MIDT.