Childhood lead exposure has been correlated to acts of delinquency and criminal behavior; however, little research has been conducted to examine its potential long term influence on behavioral factors such as personality, specifically psychopathic personality. Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the effects of childhood lead exposure persist into adulthood, with structural abnormalities found in gray and white matter regions involved in behavioral decision making. The current study examined whether measurements of adult psychopathy were associated with neuroanatomical differences in structural brain volumes for a longitudinal cohort with measured childhood lead exposure. We hypothesized that increased total psychopathy scores and increased blood lead concentration at 78 months of age (PbB78) would be inversely associated with volumetric measures of gray and white matter brain structures responsible for executive and emotional processing. Analyses did not display a direct effect between total psychopathy score and gray matter volume; however, reduced white matter volume in the cerebellum and brain stem in relation to increased total psychopathy scores was observed. An interaction between sex and total psychopathy score was also detected. Females displayed increased gray matter volume in the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes associated with increased total psychopathy score, but did not display any white matter volume differences. Males primarily displayed reductions in frontal gray and white matter brain volume in relation to increased total psychopathy scores. Additionally, reduced gray and white matter volume was associated with increased blood lead levels in the frontal lobes; reduced white matter volume was also observed in the parietal and temporal lobes. Females demonstrated gray and white matter volume loss associated with increased PbB78 values in the right temporal lobe, as well as reduced gray matter volume in the frontal lobe. Males displayed reduced white matter volumes associated with increased PbB78 values in the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. Comparison of the two primary models revealed a volumetric decrease in the white matter of the left prefrontal cortex associated with increased total psychopathy scores and increased blood lead concentration in males. The results of this study suggested that increased psychopathy scores in this cohort may be attributable to the neuroanatomical abnormalities observed and that childhood lead exposure may be influential to these outcomes.

儿童接触铅与犯罪行为和犯罪行为有关；但是，很少进行研究来研究其对行为因素（例如人格，特别是精神病性人格）的潜在长期影响。神经影像学研究表明，儿童铅暴露的影响一直持续到成年期，在行为决策中涉及的灰色和白色物质区域中发现了结构异常。本研究检查了纵向队列中儿童铅暴露的测量结果，成人精神病的测量值是否与结构脑容量的神经解剖学差异有关。我们假设，在78个月大时，总的心理疾病评分增加和血铅浓度增加（PbB78）将与负责执行和情感处理的灰色和白色物质大脑结构的体积测量值呈负相关。分析并没有显示出总的精神病评分和灰质量之间有直接关系。然而，观察到小脑和脑干中的白质物质减少与总的精神病评分增加有关。性别与总精神病评分之间的相互作用也被检测到。雌性在额叶，颞叶和顶叶的灰质体积增加，与总的精神病评分增加有关，但白质体积没有差异。男性主要表现为与增加的总心理疾病分数有关的额叶灰白质脑容量减少。另外，减少的灰白色物质与额叶的血铅水平增加有关。在顶叶和颞叶也观察到白质减少。女性表现出与右侧颞叶PbB78值增加相关的灰白质体积损失，以及额叶中灰质体积减少。雄性显示减少的白质体积与额叶，颞叶和顶叶的PbB78值增加有关。两种主要模型的比较显示，左前额叶皮层白质的体积减少与男性总精神病评分增加和血铅浓度升高有关。这项研究的结果表明，该人群的精神病评分增加可能归因于观察到的神经解剖学异常，而儿童铅暴露可能对这些结果有影响。