AUTHOR=Guan Muzhen , Ma Lifang , Zhu Yifang , Liao Yang , Zeng Lingwei , Wu Shengjun , Men Ke , Liu Xufeng 

TITLE=Impaired sustained attention in groups at high risk for antisocial personality disorder: A contingent negative variation and standardized low-resolution tomographic analysis study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

VOLUME=16

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.925322

DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2022.925322

ISSN=1662-5161

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>This study aimed to explore the characteristics of contingent negative variation (CNV) in groups at high risk for antisocial personality disorder.</p></sec><sec><title>Materials and methods</title><p>A classic CNV paradigm was used to compare the characteristics of attention maintenance among a group of individuals with conduct disorder (CD group; <italic>n</italic> = 27), a group of individuals with antisocial personality traits (AP; <italic>n</italic> = 29), a group of individuals with conduct disorder and antisocial personality traits (CD + AP group; <italic>n</italic> = 25), and a group of healthy controls (CG group; <italic>n</italic> = 30), to examine the characteristics of the amplitude and latency of CNV in different processing stages.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Results of the event-related potential analysis were as follows: The mean amplitude analysis between 500 and 1,000 ms revealed that the mean CNV amplitudes in the CD + AP group (-1.388 ± 0.449 μV, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001) were significantly lower than that in the CG group (-4.937 ± 0.409 μV). The mean amplitude analysis between 1,000 and 1,500 ms revealed that the mean CNV amplitude in the CD + AP group (-0.931 ± 0.646 μV) was significantly lower than that in the CG group (4.809 ± 0.589 μV, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001). The mean amplitude analysis between 1,500 and 2,000 ms revealed that the mean CNV amplitude in the CG group (3.121 ± 0.725 μV) was significantly higher than that in the CD + AP group (-0.277 ± 0.795 μV, <italic>P</italic> = 0.012), whereas the mean CNV amplitude in the CD + AP group was not significantly different in the AP group (<italic>P</italic> = 0.168) and CD group (<italic>P</italic> &gt; 0.05). Source localization results indicated altered activity in frontal-temporal regions.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The CNV amplitude characteristics in the CD + AP group and AP group were more consistent and fluctuated around the baseline, indicating the absence of attention maintenance resulted in impairments in attention allocation and motor preparation in the CD + AP group and AP group.</p></sec>