REGULAR ARTICLE Dissociation between affective sharing and emotion understanding in juvenile psychopaths YAWEI CHENG, a,b AN-YI HUNG, a AND JEAN DECETY c a National Yang-Ming University; b National Yang-Ming University Hospital; and c University of Chicago Abstract Empathy dysfunction is one of the core characteristics of youth with callous–unemotional (CU) traits. How such a dysfunction is associated with abnormal neural processing, however, remainsto be determined. This study combined assessment of Hare Psychopathy Checklist Youth Version, pressure pain threshold, and event-related brain potentials elicited by the perception of people in pain in 15 young offenders with low CU traits (LCU), 13 with high CU traits (HCU), and 15 typically developing controls. Compared to the controls, LCU and HCU had higher pain thresholds. Although only the central late positive potential (LPP) was reduced in LCU, both the frontal N120 and central LPP were diminished in HCU. When exposed to situations in which someone was harmed by another, HCU retained the LPP, and this response was significantly correlated with their psychopathic traits and pain thresholds. Both groups had no deficit in sensorimotor resonance as assessed by mu suppression. These results demonstrate that youth with HCU exhibit atypical neural dynamics of pain empathy processing in the early stage of affective arousal, which is coupled with their relative insensitivity to actual pain. Their capacity to understand intentionality, however, was not affected. Such uncoupling between affective arousal and emotion understanding may contribute to instigating aggressive behaviors in juvenile psychopaths. Successful development of emotional functioning requires that children learn to express their feelings to others and accu- rately attend to, recognize, and interpret the emotions ex- pressed by others (Wismer Fries & Pollak, 2009). Con- versely, difficulties in socioemotional processing may lead to inappropriate social behaviors, as it is the case with indi- viduals who develop antisocial personality disorder. Antiso- cial behavior committed by youths is a significant and par- ticular clinical and societal concern (Van Goozen, Fairchild, & Harold, 2008). Children and adolescents with callous–unemotional (CU) traits are described as lacking guilt and empathy and a callous use of others for personal gain (Frick & Viding, 2009; Lahey & Waldman, 2003). These individuals are thought to lack emotional responsive- ness to distress cues and may show both reactive and proac- tive aggression (de Wied, Gispen-de Wied, & van Boxtel, 2010; Frick & White, 2008). CU traits designate a subgroup of antisocial youth, who show a severe, violent, and difficult to treat pattern of antisocial behavior similar to the conceptua- lization of psychopathy made with adults (Cleckley, 1976; Frick & Viding, 2009; Hare, Glass, & Newman, 2006). CU traits are considered to be the most important factor for iden- tifying individuals with psychopathic tendencies despite cul- tural differences (Cooke & Michie, 1999). A large body of evidence has demonstrated that children with conduct disor- der who display CU traits are distinct from children with conduct disorder who do not display CU traits in many ways, including clinical, neuropsychological, and genetic as- pects (Frick & White, 2008; Loney, Butler, Lima, Counts, & Eckel, 2006; Lynam et al., 2009; Taylor, Loney, Bobadilla, Iacono, & McGue, 2003; Viding, Blair, Moffitt, & Plomin, 2005). Empathy, the ability to share, appreciate, and respond adap- tively to the emotional and affective states of others, is believed to act as a proxy in promoting prosocial behavior and inhibiting aggression (Decety & Jackson, 2004; Decety & Meyer, 2008). Conversely, the lack of empathy is thought to have a facilitating influence on offensive behavior (Eisenberg & Aalsma, 2005; Zahn-Waxler & Radke-Yarrow, 1990). That is, if a person vi- cariously experiences the distress that they have caused to oth- ers because of their aggression, they will be less likely to con- tinue to hurt others and more likely to help them. In contrast, lack of concern is an important risk factor for antisocial behav- ior problems such as conduct disorder (Lahey & Waldman, 2003). The propensity for aggressive behavior is thought to Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jean Decety, Depart- ment of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637; E-mail: decety@uchi- cago.edu. The study was sponsored by the National Science Council (NSC 99-2314-B- 010-037-MY3), National Yang-Ming University Hospital (RD 2011-005), Academia Sinica (AS-99-TP-AC1), a grant from the Ministry of Education (Aim for the Top University Plan), and Taipei Juvenile Detention House. Jean Decety was supported by Grant BCS-0718480 from the National Sci- ence Foundation. The first and second authors contributed equally to the study. Development and Psychopathology 24 (2012), 623–636 # Cambridge University Press 2012 doi:10.1017/S095457941200020X 623