EmpaMEG: Investigating the neural basis of empathy in antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy using OPM-MEG

Project Description

Violent crime has enormous costs for society. It is mostly committed by people with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), who have difficulties with both cognitive empathy, which is the ability to understand what other people are thinking and feeling, and affective empathy, which is responding emotionally to others’ emotions. About one third of these people also have a more severe form of ASPD, called psychopathy (ASPD+P). They struggle greatly to empathise with others, commit more serious and violent crime, and respond especially poorly to treatments, compared to those with ASPD without psychopathy (ASPD-P). Evidence for good treatments is poor in both groups. A better understanding of the empathy abnormalities and their underlying biology within these groups of violent offenders is important to address this problem. However, studies examining both cognitive and affective empathy in samples of violent offenders with ASPD+/-P are lacking.

This study will compare empathy in violent offenders with ASPD+/-P to empathy in healthy non-offenders, using a robust measure of cognitive and affective empathy- EmpaToM. Alongside this task, cutting-edge ‘wearable’ brain scan technology- OPM-MEG – will be used to develop neural markers of empathy deficits. This is especially valuable as individuals with ASPD+/-P struggle to complete complex behavioural tasks in the fMRI setting. This work will generate a better understanding of the precise empathy abnormalities in ASPD+/-P. By also linking these abnormalities to underlying brain biology and chemistry, we can begin to develop options for more effective treatments, including like medications and non-invasive brain stimulation.