Characterising affective vulnerabilities in children with different subtypes of antisocial behaviour
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Clinical Health and Educational Psych
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Essi Viding (Principal Investigator) | |
| Eamon McCrory (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
McCrory E
(2010)
Research review: the neurobiology and genetics of maltreatment and adversity.
in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines
Viding E
(2011)
Behavioural problems and bullying at school: can cognitive neuroscience shed new light on an old problem?
in Trends in cognitive sciences
McCrory E
(2011)
The impact of childhood maltreatment: a review of neurobiological and genetic factors.
in Frontiers in psychiatry
Sebastian CL
(2012)
Neural responses to affective and cognitive theory of mind in children with conduct problems and varying levels of callous-unemotional traits.
in Archives of general psychiatry
Viding E
(2012)
Antisocial behaviour in children with and without callous-unemotional traits.
in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
Sebastian C
(2012)
Neural processing associated with cognitive and affective Theory of Mind in adolescents and adults
in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Viding E
(2012)
Amygdala response to preattentive masked fear in children with conduct problems: the role of callous-unemotional traits.
in The American journal of psychiatry
Lockwood PL
(2013)
Association of callous traits with reduced neural response to others' pain in children with conduct problems.
in Current biology : CB
Armony, Jorge; Vuilleumier, Patrik
(2013)
The Cambridge Handbook of Human Affective Neuroscience
Bird G
(2014)
The self to other model of empathy: providing a new framework for understanding empathy impairments in psychopathy, autism, and alexithymia.
in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
| Description | The research undertaken during this award systematically demonstrated that CU traits delineated a distinct neurocognitive profile among children with conduct problems. Our studies were the first to directly compare and contrast children with low vs. high CU traits and showed that their neural reactivity to emotional stimuli was different. Those with high CU traits showed attenuated and those with low CU traits either typical or exaggerated neural responses to emotional stimuli. |
| Exploitation Route | These findings have already stimulated new research into CU traits as a useful sub typing factor in children with conduct disorder. We have also readily shared our paradigms with other research groups and I am aware of at least two other groups that are currently using our fMRI tasks and attempt to replicate and extend our findings. |
| Sectors | Education,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Description | These findings have been instrumental in providing rationale for new pilot intervention trials for conduct disorder. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2013 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | 'From DNA to Social Minds' Conference, University of York, U.K. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Keynote; Using conduct problem phenotypes to illustrate the challenge of uncovering how genes and environments influence the development of social minds |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | 10-year Anniversary Conference of IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Keynote; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Aggressotype ERC Consortium meeting, Frankfurt, Germany |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Masterclass; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Amygdala activity in response to fearful faces in children with conduct problems with/without CU traits. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Our recent research regarding the hypo/hyper-reactivity of the amygdala in response to preattentively presented distress cues in children with/without callous unemotional traits was presented. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Antisocial behaviour in children: Theoretical basis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Different strands of evidence suggest that high vs. low callous-unemotional traits delineate meaningful subtypes of children with antisocial behaviour. I present behavioural, neuroscience and genetic findings that underscore the importance of subtyping children with antisocial behaviour based on callous-unemotional traits and highlight how neuroscience can inform targeted interventions. Subsequent talks in this workshop by practitioners like Dr. Laura Warren expand on this theme and highlight existing translational schemes at schools that take account of this subtyping distinction |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health National Conference, London, U.K. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Biological vulnerability to antisocial behaviour in children |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | This talk overviews the evidence base regarding biological vulnerability to antisocial behaviour in children, including new data from our lab. The ethical implications of biomarker research in children will be discussed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour: Genetic and brain imaging findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour and I will present some preliminary genome-wide association data relating to this group of children. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive "abnormalities" associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of callous-unemotional traits. Our on-going research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour: Genetic and brain imaging findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that psychopathic traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to persistent antisocial behavior. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive 'abnormalities' associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of antisocial behavior coupled with callous-unemotional traits. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour: Integrating genetic and brain imaging findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour and I will present some preliminary genome-wide association data relating to this group of children. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive "abnormalities" associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of callous-unemotional traits. Our on-going research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour: Integrating genetic and brain imaging findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour and I will present some preliminary genome-wide association data relating to this group of children. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive "abnormalities" associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of callous-unemotional traits. Our on-going research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour: Integrating genetic and brain imaging findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour and I will present some preliminary genome-wide association data relating to this group of children. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive "abnormalities" associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of callous-unemotional traits. Our on-going research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour: Integrating genetic and brain imaging findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour and I will present some preliminary genome-wide association data relating to this group of children. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive "abnormalities" associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of callous-unemotional traits. Our on-going research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour: Research review and translational implications |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | More than fifteen years of research now underscores the behavioural and emotional differences between the callous-unemotional and non-callous subtypes of children with antisocial behaviour. Research from our lab and others has documented that children with callous-unemotional traits may be genetically vulnerable to antisocial behaviour, while those without callous-unemotional traits appear to have primarily environmental aetiology to their antisocial behaviour. The two groups may also show differences in their neural reactivity to emotional stimuli, although this research is still very preliminary and several outstanding questions remain. I will round off by briefly discussing the implications of the current evidence base for prevention and intervention. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Cambridge University CBU Chaucer Club talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk to Cambridge neuroscience academics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories Wiring the Brain workshop, Long Island, New York, U.S.A. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct Disorder in Adolescence: Emotions, Regulation, and Individual Differences. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour and I will present some preliminary genome-wide association data relating to this group of children. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive "abnormalities" associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of callous-unemotional traits. Our on-going research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits: Genetic and Brain Imaging Findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit both conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable, yet can change across development. Conduct problems in the presence of callous-unemotional traits show high heritability, whereas conduct problems in the absence of such traits do not. Further evidence for callous-unemotional traits delineating distinct sub-groups of children with conduct problems comes from recent neuroimaging work, which I will discuss at the latter part of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits: Genetic and Brain Imaging Findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit both conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable, yet can change across development. Conduct problems in the presence of callous-unemotional traits show high heritability, whereas conduct problems in the absence of such traits do not. Further evidence for callous-unemotional traits delineating distinct sub-groups of children with conduct problems comes from recent neuroimaging work, which I will discuss at the latter part of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits: Genetic and Brain Imaging Findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit both conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable, yet can change across development. Conduct problems in the presence of callous-unemotional traits show high heritability, whereas conduct problems in the absence of such traits do not. Further evidence for callous-unemotional traits delineating distinct sub-groups of children with conduct problems comes from recent neuroimaging work, which I will discuss at the latter part of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits: Genetic and Brain Imaging Findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit both conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable, yet can change across development. Conduct problems in the presence of callous-unemotional traits show high heritability, whereas conduct problems in the absence of such traits do not. Further evidence for callous-unemotional traits delineating distinct sub-groups of children with conduct problems comes from recent neuroimaging work, which I will discuss at the latter part of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits: Using Different Methodologies to Find Out More |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | More than fifteen years of research now underscores the behavioural and emotional differences between the callous-unemotional and non-callous subtypes of children with antisocial behaviour. Research from our lab and others has documented that children with callous-unemotional traits may be genetically vulnerable to antisocial behaviour, while those without callous-unemotional traits appear to have primarily environmental aetiology to their antisocial behaviour. The two groups may also show differences in their neural reactivity to emotional stimuli, although this research is still very preliminary and several outstanding questions remain. I will round off by briefly discussing the implications of the current evidence base for prevention and intervention. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits: Using multiple methodologies to find out more |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | More than fifteen years of research now underscores the behavioural and emotional differences between the callous-unemotional and non-callous subtypes of children with antisocial behaviour. Research from our lab and others has documented that children with callous-unemotional traits may be genetically vulnerable to antisocial behaviour, while those without callous-unemotional traits appear to have primarily environmental aetiology to their antisocial behaviour. The two groups may also show differences in their neural reactivity to emotional stimuli, although this research is still very preliminary and several outstanding questions remain. I will round off by briefly discussing the implications of the current evidence base for prevention and intervention. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits: Genetic and brain imaging findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit both conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable, yet can change across development. Conduct problems in the presence of callous-unemotional traits show high heritability, whereas conduct problems in the absence of such traits do not. Further evidence for callous-unemotional traits delineating distinct sub-groups of children with conduct problems comes from recent neuroimaging work, which I will discuss at the latter part of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits: Genetic and brain imaging findings. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit both conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable, yet can change across development. Conduct problems in the presence of callous-unemotional traits show high heritability, whereas conduct problems in the absence of such traits do not. Further evidence for callous-unemotional traits delineating distinct sub-groups of children with conduct problems comes from recent neuroimaging work, which I will discuss at the latter part of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits: Genetic and brain imaging findings. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit both conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable, yet can change across development. Conduct problems in the presence of callous-unemotional traits show high heritability, whereas conduct problems in the absence of such traits do not. Further evidence for callous-unemotional traits delineating distinct sub-groups of children with conduct problems comes from recent neuroimaging work, which I will discuss at the latter part of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits: Using different methodologies to find out more |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | More than fifteen years of research now underscores the behavioural and emotional differences between the callous-unemotional and non-callous subtypes of children with antisocial behaviour. Research from our lab and others has documented that children with callous-unemotional traits may be genetically vulnerable to antisocial behaviour, while those without callous-unemotional traits appear to have primarily environmental aetiology to their antisocial behaviour. The two groups may also show differences in their neural reactivity to emotional stimuli, although this research is still very preliminary and several outstanding questions remain. I will round off by briefly discussing the implications of the current evidence base for prevention and intervention. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct problems and psychopathic tendencies: Integrating genetic and brain imaging findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that psychopathic traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to persistent antisocial behavior. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive 'abnormalities' associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of antisocial behavior coupled with callous-unemotional traits. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Conduct problems: Callous-unemotional traits as a subtyping index |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | More than fifteen years of research now underscores the behavioural and emotional differences between the callous-unemotional and non-callous subtypes of children with antisocial behaviour. Research from our lab and others has documented that children with callous-unemotional traits may be genetically vulnerable to antisocial behaviour, while those without callous-unemotional traits appear to have primarily environmental aetiology to their antisocial behaviour. The two groups may also show differences in their neural reactivity to emotional stimuli, although this research is still very preliminary and several outstanding questions remain. I will round off by briefly discussing the implications of the current evidence base for prevention and intervention. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Development of the psychopathic brain |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour and I will present some preliminary genome-wide association data relating to this group of children. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive "abnormalities" associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of psychopathy/psychopathic traits. Our ongoing research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Developmental pathways to persistent antisocial behaviour |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Outlines the hypothesised developmental trajectories leading to the proposed subtypes of antisocial behaviour with and without callous-unemotional traits. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Developmental psychopathology & resilient functioning: Need for Epigenetic Research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | The need for the consideration of epigenetic modulation of gene function in psychopathology was described with especial reference to work on conduct disorders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Developmental risk for psychopathy in children: Lectures on the phenomenology and biology of callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Abstract: These lectures will describe 1) the behaviours and traits that distinguish children with callous-unemotional traits from other children with conduct problems; 2) overview genetically informative research to this condition, and 3) outline neurocognitive findings in children with callous-unemotional traits and conduct problems. Implications for treatment will be discussed after the research overview. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Different pathways to conduct problems: The role of callous-unemotional traits |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Not all children present with conduct problems for the same reasons. Researchers are becoming increasingly aware of different pathways to similar problem behaviours. Children with callous-unemotional traits lack empathy and display low responsiveness to other people's distress. Their conduct problems are often severe, premeditated and persistent. These trait and behavioural characteristics are similar in some ways to hose seen in adult psychopaths. We can employ different methodologies to investigate the vulnerabilities that characterize children with high levels of callous-unemotional traits. Research from our on lab and that of other researchers has, for example, examined cognitive-affective, biological and environmental vulnerabilities. Children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits have reduced sensitivity to visual or vocal displays of distress emotions and poor modulation of behavior in response to punishment. Recent neuroimaging work has begun to elucidate the pattern of neural vulnerabilities associated with high levels of callous-unemotional traits, including low amygdala activity to other people's distress. Genetically informative studies suggest that callous-unemotional traits (and conduct problems in the presence of these traits) are highly heritable. High heritability does not, however, denote immutability and callous-unemtotional traits can change over time. The challenge is to understand how biological and cognitive vulnerabilities to callous-unemotional traits can be moderated by environmental factors, such as parenting and structured therapeutic intervention. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Donders Centre for Cognition lectures, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Emotional Processing in Typical Adolescence and in Adolescents with Conduct Problems |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Neuroimaging studies have shown continued structural and functional development in neural circuitry underlying social and emotional behaviour during adolescence. My talk will explore neurocognitive development of emotional processing in typical adolescence in two domains: sensitivity to social rejection, and affective Theory of Mind (understanding others' emotions). I will also discuss recent neuroimaging studies of affective processing in adolescents with conduct problems and varying levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Our findings suggest that neural responsiveness to emotional cues varies with levels of CU traits across a range of emotional processing tasks. These data highlight the importance of considering heterogeneity within diagnostic categories. I will end by discussing preliminary data and plans for new work investigating affective processing and regulation in adolescence. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Emotional processing in typical adolescence and in adolescents with conduct problems |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Neuroimaging studies have shown continued structural and functional development in neural circuitry underlying social and emotional behaviour during adolescence. My talk will explore neurocognitive development of emotional processing in typical adolescence in two domains: sensitivity to social rejection, and affective Theory of Mind (understanding others' emotions). I will also discuss recent neuroimaging studies of affective processing in adolescents with conduct problems and varying levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Our findings suggest that neural responsiveness to emotional cues varies with levels of CU traits across a range of emotional processing tasks. These data highlight the importance of considering heterogeneity within diagnostic categories. I will end by discussing preliminary data and plans for new work investigating affective processing and regulation in adolescence. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | European Association for Forensic Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Conference, Porto, Portugal |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Keynote; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Genetics of callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | This was an invited talk aimed at practitioners, in which our research into the genetic and neurobiological underpinnings of antisocial behaviour was outlined with especial emphasis on possible translational implications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Invited talk Oxford Autumn School in Cognitive Neuroscience |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was a talk to primarily postgraduate students. Approximately 100-150 participants attended. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Joseph Lister Award Lecture: Why Do Some People Become Psychopaths? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopaths have callous and unemotional personality traits, and often engage in criminal and antisocial activities. They lack empathy and emotion about their antisocial behaviour. We can see similar traits in children who are at risk of developing psychopathy. This talk reviews antisocial behaviour in children, in terms of genetics, brain structure, and behavioural development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Kids behaving badly: How neuroscience can help |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Different strands of evidence, reviewed in the first part of this talk, suggest that high vs. low callous-unemotional traits delineate meaningful subtypes of children with antisocial behaviour. The second part of the talk describes neuroscience findings that further underscore the importance of subtyping children with antisocial behaviour based on callous-unemotional traits and highlights how neuroscience can inform targeted interventions. Subsequent talk by Professor Frederickson expands on this theme and highlights existing translational schemes at schools that take account of this subtyping distinction. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Lectures on the phenomenology and biology of callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | These lectures will describe 1) the behaviours and traits that distinguish children with callous-unemotional traits from other children with conduct problems; 2) overview genetically informative research to this condition, and 3) outline neurocognitive findings in children with callous-unemotional traits and conduct problems. Implications for treatment will be discussed after the research overview. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Loebel Lectures, University of Oxford, U.K. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Oxford Loebel Lectures - http://www.loebelprogramme.ox.ac.uk Developmental risk and resilience: The challenge of translating multi-level data to concrete interventions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies Workshop on Gene Environment Interactions in the Developing Brain, Leiden, Netherlands |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Netherlands Neuropsychological Association Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Keynote; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Neural Bases of Emotion Processing in Typical and Atypical Adolescence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Neuroimaging studies have shown continued structural and functional development in neural circuitry underlying social and emotional behaviour during adolescence. My talk will explore neurocognitive development of emotional processing in typical adolescence in two domains: sensitivity to social rejection, and affective Theory of Mind (understanding others' emotions). I will also discuss recent neuroimaging studies of affective processing in adolescents with conduct problems and varying levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Our findings suggest that neural responsiveness to emotional cues varies with levels of CU traits across a range of emotional processing tasks. These data highlight the importance of considering heterogeneity within diagnostic categories. I will end by discussing new data and plans for work investigating affective processing and regulation in adolescence. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Neural responses to affective and cognitive Theory of Mind in conduct problem children with varying levels of CU traits |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | In this talk, our recent research comparing neural responses in children with and without callous-unemotional traits as they perform affective and cognitive theory of mind tasks was presented. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Personality Psychiatry Conference, Oslo, Norway |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Keynote; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Psychopathic tendencies in children: Social cognitive underpinnings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive 'abnormalities' associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of psychopathy/psychopathic traits. Our on-going research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Psychopathic traits in children: Potential for early interventions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit both conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits and are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Conduct problems in the presence of callous-unemotional traits show high heritability, whereas conduct problems in the absence of such traits do not. Further evidence for callous-unemotional traits delineating distinct sub-groups of children with conduct problems comes from recent neuroimaging work indicative of different profiles of vulnerability in children with/without callous-unemotional traits. Although callous-unemotional traits are heritable, we also know that they can change across development. Potential early intervention strategies will be discussed at the latter part of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Rosalind Franklin Award Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Widely advertised and publicly disseminated Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i04ky-Aat2E |
| Description | School talk about conduct problems to staff at the Chiltern Way Federation BESD schools |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Talk initiated discussion and exchange of ideas with teachers. Schools agreed to participate in our research and we are consulting schools on ongoing basis regarding pupil provision. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Talk at Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Talk evoked questions and discussions. E-mail and Skype exchanges with new colleagues that followed on from the meeting. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Treatment of Psychopathy Conference, Antwerp, Belgium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Keynote; Neuroscience and psychopathy: therapeutic implications |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Turin Mind and Brain Prize talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I gave the Turin Mind and Brain Prize lecture. About 150 people attended. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | University of Minnesota Psychology Department Colloquium, Minneapolis, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk; Developmental risk and resilience: The challenge of translating multi-level data to concrete interventions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Using conduct problem phenotypes to highlight the challenges of gene-environment interplay research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Opening talk of an invited speaker workshop at Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. The talk reviewed studies that have employed a variety of methodologies - including what little we know about gene-environment interplay - to increase our understanding of individual differences in vulnerability to conduct problems. The talk also outlined future research directions that may help us to better understand how genetic and environmental factors act in concert to increase risk for conduct problems. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Wellcome Trust Summer School in Biology of Social Cognition, Cambridge, U.K. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk; Conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits in children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | What are children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits made of? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Psychopathy is an adult diagnosis comprised of both callous-unemotional personality traits (lack of empathy and guilt) and overt antisocial behaviour. One can also find children who exhibit callous-unemotional subtype of antisocial behaviour and who are at an increased risk for developing psychopathy. Research from our lab and others has documented that callous-unemotional traits are heritable. More interestingly, when we study subgroups of antisocial children with/without callous-unemotional traits, we find strong genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the former group, but not in the latter. Our finding supports the view that children at risk for psychopathy form a distinct subgroup with a genetic vulnerability to antisocial behaviour and I will present some preliminary genome-wide association data relating to this group of children. Genetic vulnerability may underlie neurocognitive "abnormalities" associated with psychopathic traits. I will provide a brief overview of data from our and other labs investigating neurocognitive correlates of callous-unemotional traits. Our on-going research combines behaviour genetic and brain imaging methodologies and these efforts will be discussed at the end of the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |