Frontal alpha asymmetry and emotional processing in youth with psychopathic traits

Abstract Emotional processing deficits are often considered central to psychopathy. There is evidence that those high in psychopathy pay less attention to emotional stimuli, and it is possible that these individuals experience diminished withdrawal motivation or heightened approach motivation in response to emotional stimuli. Studying emotional processing abnormalities, especially among youth, may be essential for better understanding psychopathy's development and for informing interventions. However, few studies on psychopathy have experimentally manipulated emotional processing, and despite the growing literature on neuroscience and psychopathy, there are aspects of neural activity that have yet to be investigated. The current study used a sample of 52 justice‐involved youth to examine how psychopathy, as measured by the Proposed Specifiers for Conduct Disorder scale, relates to frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), a neural correlate of approach and withdrawal motivation. Alpha asymmetry was first measured at rest and then while youth were asked to process emotional stimuli spontaneously as well as to increase and decrease their responses to emotional stimuli. Results indicated that total psychopathy was not related to FAA at rest or during task performance. However, youth higher in callous‐unemotional traits demonstrated similar patterns of neural activity to youth lower in callous‐unemotional traits when instructed to increase their response to emotional stimuli. These findings were not evident for grandiose‐manipulative or daring‐impulsive traits. These findings may indicate that youth high in callous‐unemotional traits are capable of modulating their emotional responding, which could in turn have treatment implications for youth high in psychopathic traits.