Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Researchers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Radboud
University Nijmegen found proof that psychopathic individuals can feel fear,
but have trouble in the automatic detection and responsivity to threat.
For many decades fear has been put forth as a hallmark feature
of psychopathy, the impairments in which would lead to bold risk-taking
behavior.
Sylco Hoppenbrouwers (VU Amsterdam), Erik Bulten and Inti Brazil
(Radboud University) reviewed theoretical and empirical brain and behavioral
data pertaining to fear and psychopathy and found that psychopathic individuals
have trouble detecting threats.
There was however little evidence that the conscious experience
of fear was affected, indicating that the experience of fear may not be
completely impaired in psychopathy.
In
their systematic review and meta-analysis, Hoppenbrouwers, Bulten and Brazil
reviewed the available evidence for the potential existence of the relationship
between fear and psychopathy in adult individuals.
Importantly, their definition of fear was based on state of the
art knowledge of the neurobiological and cognitive underpinnings of this
emotion.
They used this knowledge to generate a model that separates
brain mechanisms involved in automatic detection and responding to threats from
those involved in the conscious experience of fear as an emotion.
Using this model as reference, they first performed a conceptual
analysis of the work of earlier theorists, going back to as early as 1806. They
found that only one theorist incorporated the construct of fear into an
etiological model of psychopathy.
Fear isn't absent in psychopathic individuals
The
evidence for impairments in brain areas involved in the experience of fear was
less consistent than is often assumed, indicating that the experience of fear
may not be completely impaired in psychopathy.
The researchers then conclusively showed that psychopathic
individuals have trouble in the automatic detection and responsivity to threat
but may in fact feel fear, providing direct empirical support for the claim
that the conscious experience of fear may not be impaired in these individuals.
An additional meta-analysis examining the five other basic
emotions found that there may also be impairments in the experience of
happiness and anger, but the lack of consistency in the current literature
precluded the generation of strong claims.
New model also applies to mood and
anxiety disorders
The
research by Hoppenbrouwers, Bulten and Brazil is the first to provide empirical
evidence that the automatic and conscious processes can be separated.
Furthermore, the proposed model not only applies to psychopathy,
but can also be used to further increase conceptual precision and generate new
hypotheses for research on mood and anxiety disorders.
Inti Brazil: "While psychopathic individuals may suffer
from a dysfunctional threat system, people with posttraumatic stress disorder
may have a hyperactive threat system, which later leads to them feeling
fearful."
Sylco Hoppenbrouwers agrees: "As a consequence of our
research, some very influential theories that assign prominent roles to
fearlessness in the aetiology of psychopathy will need to be reconsidered and
made consistent with current neuroscientific evidence. Such re-evaluations of
key concepts will lead to increased precision in research and clinical practice
which should ultimately pave the way toward more targeted and more effective
treatment interventions."