Papers by Cesar Romero Rebollar
Revista Médica Del Hospital General De México, 2015
Introduction: Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by affective and antisocial tra... more Introduction: Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by affective and antisocial traits. The defining features of psychopathy are risk factors to present violent behavior. It has been suggested that both orbitofrontal neuropsychological performance and genetic factors are fundamental for the development of psychopathy. Objective: To assess the moderating role of MAOA genotype on the relationship between orbitofrontal function and psychopathy traits. Methods: 66 adult male inmate subjects were assessed by an executive functions battery and the MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism was obtained. Multiple regression analysis was carried out to compare the group slopes according to the genetic variation of MAOA and to assess the effect of this variation in the relationship between orbitofrontal functioning and psychopathy traits. Results: The relationship between low orbitofrontal neuropsychological performance and the presence of antisocial traits of psychopathy was stronger among the low activity of MAOA allele carriers. Discussion: These findings were according to the previous studies about abnormal emotional processing and behavioral inhibition failures reported in subjects with genetic risk for violence, as well as with studies about neuropsychological performance in psychopaths. Further the MAOA genotype moderates the relationship between orbitofrontal functioning and antisocial traits of psychopathy which is a risk factor for violence.
Obesity is a worldwide epidemic associated with severe health and psychological wellbeing impairm... more Obesity is a worldwide epidemic associated with severe health and psychological wellbeing impairments expressed by an increased prevalence of affective disorders. Emotional dysfunction is important due to its effect on social performance. The aim of the present narrative review is to provide a general overview of human research exploring emotional information processing in overweight and obese people. Evidence suggests that obesity is associated with an attenuation of emotional experience, contradictory findings about emotion recognition, and scarce research about automatic emotional information processing. Finally, we made some concluding considerations for future research on emotional information processing in overweight and obese people.
Emotional processing has an important role in social interaction. We report the findings about th... more Emotional processing has an important role in social interaction. We report the findings about the Independent Component Analysis carried out on a fMRI set obtained with a paradigm of face emotional processing. The results showed that an independent component, mainly cerebellar-medial-frontal, had a positive modulation associated with fear processing. Also, another independent component, mainly parahippocampal-prefrontal, showed a negative modulation that could be associated with implicit reappraisal of emotional stimuli. Independent Component Analysis could serve as a method to understand complex cognitive processes and their underlying neural dynamics.
Entre los diversos factores asociados con la predisposición a la conducta violenta se encuentra l... more Entre los diversos factores asociados con la predisposición a la conducta violenta se encuentra la portación de alelos de riesgo. Para investigar el efecto de dos alelos de riesgo (baja actividad de MAO-A y 7 repeticiones DRD4) sobre mediciones de agresión, se evaluaron mediante escalas psicológicas a 60 hombres sanos. Los resultados indicaron que tanto el efecto principal de cada uno de los alelos de riesgo, como su interacción impactan sobre mediciones de hostilidad, enojo, impulsividad, empatía y rasgos antisociales de psicopatía. Se concluye que es necesario investigar el efecto de estos alelos sobre la estructura y función cerebrales, además estos alelos aparentemente confieren riesgo para el desarrollo de conductas violentas.
Introduction: Violent behavior is influenced by genetic factors, and the MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism ... more Introduction: Violent behavior is influenced by genetic factors, and the MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism has been associated with violent behavior, specifically the low activity variant. It has been suggested that this polymorphism impacts on grey matter concentration in structures associated with behavioral inhibition and emotion processing, however in previous imaging studies well defined violent subjects have not been explored. Objective: To investigate the effect of MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism on brain structure of violent subjects. Methods: The grey matter concentration of 47 adult male subjects from a community sample classified as violent or controls, was assessed through DARTEL-voxel-based morphometry technique. Results: A significant genotype by behavior interaction was found in which violent-low activity allele carriers had decrease of grey matter concentration in right superior temporal pole compared to controls of the same allelic variation. Discussion: This findings suggests that grey matter integrity in superior temporal pole could be a neurobiological correlate of the allelic association between MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism and violent behavior due to its implication in socio-emotional processing.
Introduction: Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by affective and antisocial tra... more Introduction: Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by affective and antisocial traits. The defining features of psychopathy are risk factors to present violent behavior. It has been suggested that both orbitofrontal neuropsychological performance and genetic factors are fundamental for the development of psychopathy. Objective: To assess the moderating role of MAOA genotype on the relationship between orbitofrontal function and psychopathy traits. Methods: 66 adult male inmate subjects were assessed by an executive functions battery and the MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism was obtained. Multiple regression analysis was carried out to compare the group slopes according to the genetic variation of MAOA and to assess the effect of this variation in the relationship between orbitofrontal functioning and psychopathy traits. Results: The relationship between low orbitofrontal neuropsychological performance and the presence of antisocial traits of psychopathy was stronger among the low activity of MAOA allele carriers. Discussion: These findings were according to the previous studies about abnormal emotional processing and behavioral inhibition failures reported in subjects with genetic risk for violence, as well as with studies about neuropsychological performance in psychopaths. Further the MAOA genotype moderates the relationship between orbitofrontal functioning and antisocial traits of psychopathy which is a risk factor for violence.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2012
Amygdala structural and functional abnormalities have been associated to reactive aggression in p... more Amygdala structural and functional abnormalities have been associated to reactive aggression in previous studies. However, the possible linkage of these two types of anomalies has not been examined. We hypothesized that they would coincide in the same localizations, would be correlated in intensity and would be mediated by reactive aggression personality traits. Here violent (n ¼ 25) and non-violent (n ¼ 29) men were recruited on the basis of their reactive aggression. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits were also assessed. Gray matter concentration (gmC) and reactivity to fearful and neutral facial expressions were measured in dorsal and ventral amygdala partitions. The difference between responses to fearful and neutral facial expressions was calculated (F/N-difference). Violent individuals exhibited a smaller F/N-difference and gmC in the left dorsal amygdala, where a significant coincidence was found in a conjunction analysis. Moreover, the left amygdala F/N-difference and gmC were correlated to each other, an effect mediated by reactive aggression but not by CU. The F/N-difference was caused by increased reactivity to neutral faces. This suggests that anatomical anomalies within local circuitry (and not only altered input) may underlie the amygdala hyper-reactivity to social signals which is characteristic of reactive aggression.
Acta De Investigacion Psicologica, Apr 1, 2012
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by interpersonal, affective, behavioral and l... more Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by interpersonal, affective, behavioral and life-style traits. There is a relationship between psychopathy and violent behavior but few studies assess the tendency toward violence in psychopaths by implicit association methods like the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The violent-IAT was developed to assess the cognitive distortions about violence of 195 male inmates according to their
Revista Chilena De Neuropsicologia, 2009
Artículo de Investigación: Asociaciones implícitas como método para la detección de violencia y p... more Artículo de Investigación: Asociaciones implícitas como método para la detección de violencia y psicopatía. Implicit associations as a method for detection of violence and psychopathy.
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Papers by Cesar Romero Rebollar