Through the looking glass: the neural basis of self-concept in young adults with varying levels of psychopathic traits

Description: Recent theories suggest that a positive self-concept, and differences in underlying neural activity during self-evaluation, may play an important role in different antisocial behavioral trajectories in early adulthood. Here, we test this hypothesis. A self-concept task was performed by 94 young adults (age range 18–30-yrs). During the task, participants with a persistent or desistent antisocial trajectory (N = 54), and typically developing young adults (N = 40) rated whether positive and negative traits in different domains (prosocial, physical) described themselves. To account for heterogeneity in antisocial behavior, we also examined associations with individual differences in psychopathic traits. Most young adults endorsed more positive than negative trait statements, which did not differ between groups. However, psychopathic traits were negatively associated with prosocial self-concept and mPFC activity during self-evaluation. Together, these findings suggest that antisocial tendencies might indeed be reflected in how young adults evaluate their prosocial traits.

Communities: developmental

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