Psychopathic traits from an RDoC perspective

• Psychopathic traits have callous–unemotional and impulsive–antisocial components.
• Callous–unemotional traits relate to reduced amygdala responses to distress.
• Impulsivity relates to striatum/ventromedial frontal cortex based decision-making deficits.

In this review an RDoC approach is applied to psychopathic traits. Two core neuro-cognitive systems relevant to the emergence of psychopathic traits are considered. These are the response to other individuals’ emotional displays and reinforcement-based decision-making.