Neuropsychology of callous-unemotional traits

Children with antisocial behavioral difficulties are often characterised in terms of a distinct cognitive and affective profile. However, antisocial behavior in children and adolescents has many possible antecedents, and it is important that we understand different developmental trajectories to an antisocial outcome. Callous-unemotional (CU), or early psychopathic traits, are associated with a clear behavioral profile of limited prosocial activities, lack of guilt and remorse and a deficit in ‘empathy’, and provide us with one such route for understanding the development of antisocial behavior. This chapter considers the particular cognitive-affective profile associated with CU traits, and makes comparisons with other behavioural difficulties and other neurodevelopmental disorders, including autistic spectrum conditions, where possible. We consider cognitive ability, Executive Functioning, emotion processing and empathy at the levels of behavior and the brain. Refining our understanding of the neurocognitive and emotion processing abilities should allow practitioners to develop differential, and therefore more efficient, interventions that directly target the distinct areas of difficulty that underpin antisocial behaviors in different groups of young people.