Our Research Programs
| UW Psychiatry has a rich and varied research program that includes sleep, affect, stress, anxiety, schizophrenia, consciousness, and emotions. Among our noted researchers is Michael Koenigs, PhD. Dr. Koenigs recently co-authored a paper Reduced prefrontal connectivity in psychopathy in the Journal of Neuroscience. |  Credit: Kelly Doering |
ABSTRACT: Linking psychopathy to a specific brain abnormality could have significant clinical, legal, and scientific implications. Theories on the neurobiological basis of the disorder typically propose dysfunction in a circuit involving ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). However, to date there is limited brain imaging data to directly test whether psychopathy may indeed be associated with any structural or functional abnormality within this brain area. In this study, we employ two complementary imaging techniques to assess the structural and functional connectivity of vmPFC in psychopathic and non-psychopathic criminals. Using diffusion tensor imaging, we show that psychopathy is associated with reduced structural integrity in the right uncinate fasciculus, the primary white matter connection between vmPFC and anterior temporal lobe. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that psychopathy is associated with reduced functional connectivity between vmPFC and amygdala as well as between vmPFC and medial parietal cortex. Together, these data converge to implicate diminished vmPFC connectivity as a characteristic neurobiological feature of psychopathy.
Our Publications
Hilt LM, Armstrong JM, Essex MJ. Early family context and development of adolescent ruminative style: Moderation by temperament. Cogn Emot. 2011 Nov 14. Epub ahead of print
Lewis-Peacock JA, Postle BR. Decoding the internal focus of attention. Neuropsychologia. 2011 Nov 11. Epub ahead of print
Essex MJ, Shirtcliff EA, Burk LR, Ruttle PL, Klein MH, Slattery MJ, Kalin NH, Armstrong JM. Influence of early life stress on later hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning and its covariation with mental health symptoms: a study of the allostatic process from childhood into adolescence. Dev Psychopathol. 2011 Nov;23(4):1039-58.
Maret S, Faraguna U, Nelson AB, Cirelli C, Tononi G. Sleep and waking modulate spine turnover in the adolescent mouse cortex. Nat Neurosci. 2011 Oct 9;14(11):1418-20.
Wu YC, Field AS, Duncan ID, Samsonov AA, Kondo Y, Tudorascu D, Alexander AL. High b-value and diffusion tensor imaging in a canine model of dysmyelination and brain maturation. Neuroimage. 2011 Oct 1;58(3):829-37.
Motzkin JC, Newman JP, Kiehl KA, Koenigs M. Reduced Prefrontal Connectivity in Psychopathy. J Neurosci. 30 November 2011 31(48): 17348-17357
Nacewicz BM, Angelos L, Dalton KM, Fischer R, Anderle MJ, Alexander AL, Davidson RJ. Reliable non-invasive measurement of human neurochemistry using proton spectroscopy with an anatomically defined amygdala-specific voxel. Neuroimage. 2011 Sep 5. Epub ahead of print.
Edlund JA, Chaumont N, Hintze A, Koch C, Tononi G, Adami C. Integrated information increases with fitness in the evolution of animats. PLoS Comput Biol. 2011 Oct;7.