PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Emotional processing is a cognitive function essential for the interaction of humans with their environment and the development of adaptive behaviors. Adolescent offenders (AOs) express difficulty in cognitive processes linked to emotional processing, which is a response consistently observed during the endogenous (i.e., controlled) control of attention. Less remains understood of the extent to which such atypical responses extend beyond controlled attention and influence exogenous mechanisms (i.e., automatic). This study explores this hypothesis using the recently devised emotional Flanker paradigm. It recruited a group of 39 male AOs and 39 nonoffenders from Barranquilla, Colombia. Assessment consists of an emotional Flanker paradigm administered along with traditional neurocognitive and social cognition tasks. The AOs displayed the well-known attentional bias to threat and a relatively atypical response to emotional targets in which they detected emotions, particularly negative ones, faster than did nonoffenders. Frontal lobe functions account for these effects but not sociodemographic variables nor general cognitive abilities. The results are interpreted in light of evidence suggesting that youngsters with high levels of antisocial behaviors (e.g., callous-unemotional traits) present an enhanced orientation toward distressing stimuli, which is explained by lifelong experiences (e.g., histories of abuse). The findings suggest that environmental influences seemingly exist in the development of these traits, but additional research is required to elucidate the role of cognitive and environmental factors in the development of antisocial behavior.
摘要：
情绪处理是人类与环境相互作用以及适应性行为发展所必需的认知功能。青少年罪犯（AOs）在与情绪加工相关的认知过程中表现出困难，这是在内源性过程中一致观察到的反应(即，控制)控制注意力。对这种非典型反应超出受控注意力和影响外源机制的程度知之甚少(即，自动)。本研究使用最近设计的情感Flanker范式探讨了这一假设。它从巴兰基亚招募了39名男性AOs和39名非罪犯，哥伦比亚。评估由情感Flanker范式以及传统的神经认知和社会认知任务组成。AOs表现出众所周知的对威胁的注意偏见和对他们检测到情绪的情绪目标的相对非典型的反应，尤其是负面的，比非罪犯更快。额叶功能解释了这些影响，但不是社会人口统计学变量或一般认知能力。根据证据表明青少年具有高水平的反社会行为(例如，冷酷无情的特质)呈现出对痛苦刺激的增强取向，这可以用终身经历来解释(例如，滥用的历史)。研究结果表明，环境影响似乎存在于这些特征的发展中，但是需要更多的研究来阐明认知和环境因素在反社会行为发展中的作用。
