Startle (Blink) Response for Psychopaths and Non-psychopaths (is there a change?)

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

rick

2006-09-26 19:09:54 UTC

I was reading the research done by Patrick et all:
http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/Lit/doc/levenston00a.doc
The Psychopath as Observer: Emotion and Attention in Picture Processing
This was a famous research and many times reproduced by other noted
researchers as well. At one point I noticed following:
"...nonpsychopaths showed startle inhibition for pleasant pictures
and startle potentiation for unpleasant pictures... Psychopaths, on
the other hand, showed an aberrant pattern of blink inhibition for both
pleasant and unpleasant pictures in relation to neutral (cf. Patrick et
al., 1993)"
This is the crux of their research. However, my question is if
Non-psychopaths also showed blink inhibition then there must be some
other factor that is involved here (X-factor). For example, it has been
demonstrated tat psychopaths has problem with processing pictures
involving emotion. If Patrick et all are testing defensive mechanism
and avoidance by psychopaths then they should employ some other method
other than pictures. They should come up with a testing method (for
example touch or something) to invoke fear instead of pictures.

Following is the research that talks about psychopaths having problem
processing facial expression:

Keyword search: psychopath ventromedial facial
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/122/5/883
Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and anger

Do more keyword search (for example: crime facial expression etc) and I
remember reading some article where criminals or psychopaths having
problem reading human facial expressions.

'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
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rick

2006-09-27 04:51:22 UTC

Permalink

In the following web site:
http://www.scottsdalecc.edu/ricker/psy101/quiz_questions/3-1.html
"...There are individual differences in the ease with which people are
startled by a loud noise: some are easily startled and others are not
so easily startled..."

Trick Q:
I would like to know the PCL score of the people who are not easily
startled.

Post by rick
http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/Lit/doc/levenston00a.doc
The Psychopath as Observer: Emotion and Attention in Picture Processing
This was a famous research and many times reproduced by other noted
"...nonpsychopaths showed startle inhibition for pleasant pictures
and startle potentiation for unpleasant pictures... Psychopaths, on
the other hand, showed an aberrant pattern of blink inhibition for both
pleasant and unpleasant pictures in relation to neutral (cf. Patrick et
al., 1993)"
This is the crux of their research. However, my question is if
Non-psychopaths also showed blink inhibition then there must be some
other factor that is involved here (X-factor). For example, it has been
demonstrated tat psychopaths has problem with processing pictures
involving emotion. If Patrick et all are testing defensive mechanism
and avoidance by psychopaths then they should employ some other method
other than pictures. They should come up with a testing method (for
example touch or something) to invoke fear instead of pictures.
Following is the research that talks about psychopaths having problem
Keyword search: psychopath ventromedial facial
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/122/5/883
Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and anger
Do more keyword search (for example: crime facial expression etc) and I
remember reading some article where criminals or psychopaths having
problem reading human facial expressions.
'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
sci.psychology.research is a moderated newsgroup.
Before submitting an article, please read the guidelines which are posted
here bimonthly or the charter on the web at http://psychcentral.com/spr/
Submissions are acknowledged automatically.

'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
sci.psychology.research is a moderated newsgroup.
Before submitting an article, please read the guidelines which are posted
here bimonthly or the charter on the web at http://psychcentral.com/spr/
Submissions are acknowledged automatically.

gfactor

2006-09-27 19:22:57 UTC

Permalink

Hi Rick,

That's very good of you to pick up on the subtle oddities in Patrick's
data. If you look back at his 1993 and 1994 work on the same topic,
you'll find similar inconsistencies. That is, psychopath's show similar
blink inhibition to both positive and negative pictures compared to
neutral pictures. Patrick interprets this 'abberant pattern of blink
inhibition' as indicating decreased sensitivity to the
negatively-valent stimuli. Note, however, that the psychopath still
processes the negative pictures differently than they do the neutral
pictures. This, to me, suggests that they *are* in fact processing the
negative pictures, although perhaps in an 'aberrant' way.

You mentioned defensive processing: I wouldn't want to put words in
Chris Patrick's mouth, but I don't believe defensive processing has
been his main platform over the years (although recently he's started
doing some work in that regard). That isn't to say psychopaths aren't
engaging defensive processing....in fact, I think that that is one very
plausible explanation for their blink inhibition to negative pictures.
But as explanation for his methodology of choice, I don't believe
evaluating defensive processing was his primary initial motivation for
the research.

Cheers,
Matt