ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER, CHILDHOOD DELINQUENCY, AND FRONTAL BRAIN FUNCTIONING - EEG AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FINDINGS

This experiment examined the ability of EEG activity and neuropsycholo gical testing to predict both antisocial personality disorder (ASP) an d retrospective self-ratings of early childhood problem behaviors (CPB ). Regression analyses found that increased frontal left-hemisphere EE G activation was associated with a decreased likelihood of the diagnos is of ASP or CPB. An association was also found between several motor tests of the Luria-Nebraska and Porteus Maze Test scores and CPB/ASP. The current findings suggest that ASP and CPB are associated with vari ations in frontal lobe functioning. They further suggest that disturba nces in prefrontal functioning may be a common biological ground that links ASP, substance abuse, and biological mechanisms of reinforcement . (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.