In the past, research on prosocial behaviors in antisocial and psychopathic violent offenders focused on their empathetic tendencies and the resulting prosocial behavior under negatively valenced...Show moreIn the past, research on prosocial behaviors in antisocial and psychopathic violent offenders focused on their empathetic tendencies and the resulting prosocial behavior under negatively valenced social situations (e.g. pain inflicted), disregarding the potential of positively valenced situations to elicit such behavior. This study aimed at closing this gap, by assessing prosocial behavior in psychopathic and antisocial violent offenders as opposed to a non-offender group, after presenting them with positively valenced social situations. This was done by employing an Empathy Dictator Game (EDG), in which 50 participants were asked to distribute coins between themselves and a male or female target, which they previously observed in a neutral, positive, or prosocial situation. Results showed that while psychopathic offenders did not differ significantly in their coin offers from antisocial offenders or the control group, the prosociality of the social situation influenced higher coin allocation. This effect was especially strong for individuals higher in empathetic skills. Lastly, male targets generally received more coins than female targets. This effect further influenced the effect of the diagnosis of participants on prosocial behavior, yet not the effect of the valence of the social situation. Taken together, these results suggest that violent offenders lacking empathy do have the capacity to display prosocial behaviors under the right circumstances and practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.Show less
Emerging evidence indicates that rumination, a core feature of depression, might be responsible for the compromised working-memory (WM) observed in this disorder. The current study aims to explore...Show moreEmerging evidence indicates that rumination, a core feature of depression, might be responsible for the compromised working-memory (WM) observed in this disorder. The current study aims to explore the neural underpinnings of this hypothesized effect by investigating the role of three brain networks using fMRI: the Default Mode Network (DMN; involved in self-referential thought and rumination), the Central Executive Network (CEN; involved in executive cognition and WM), and the Salience Network (SN; involved in detection of novel or relevant stimuli and subsequent prioritizing of functional neural networks). After rumination-induction in thirty-three healthy female participants, functional connectivity within the three networks was measured during a 2-back WM task, which alternated between active and resting blocks. As expected, the DMN showed increased connectivity during the resting blocks, the CEN showed increased connectivity during the active blocks, and the SN showed higher connectivity in the beginning of the active blocks than during the remaining time of the active blocks. As hypothesized, self-reported rumination was correlated with lower SN functional connectivity in the beginning of the active blocks and a slower disengagement of the DMN. CEN functional connectivity showed no significant association with rumination. These results might reflect rumination-related difficulties in re-directing cognitive resources from self-referential thoughts to external stimuli, which may arise due to the weak mapping of external stimuli. The current findings expand understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying the effects of rumination on executive function and indicate that future research should further explore the interactions between these three networks.Show less
