| Affective language processing was assessed in college student participants who possessed either high or low levels of psychopathic traits as determined by the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale. Using a lexical decision task (LDT) paradigm, participants were shown both affective and neutral word stimuli and associated event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes and reaction times (RTs) were recorded. As expected, college students possessing low amounts of psychopathic traits displayed larger ERP amplitudes and faster RTs to affective words when compared to neutral words. Unexpectedly, college students within the high psychopathy group also displayed larger ERP amplitudes and faster RTs to affective words when compared to neutral words. Additionally, a negative trend was found between LSRP score and emotional response, as measured by ERP amplitude to affective words. |
