Neuroendocrine profiles in relation to female callous-unemotional traits and distress facilitation

Emerging evidence supports that primary and secondary callous-unemotional (CU) variants show distinct physiological correlates, though prior research has exclusively distinguished CU variants based on psychosocial measures, rather than physiological indices, and focused on male samples. This study aimed to determine whether identified neuroendocrine (i.e., cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], and testosterone) profiles mapped onto theoretically relevant psychosocial constructs consistent with CU variants, and whether profiles differed in emotional processing. Salivary samples from undergraduate women (M_age = 19.02 years; SD = 1.50) oversampled for high psychopathic/CU traits (N = 101) were assayed for basal cortisol, DHEA, and testosterone. Participants completed self-report measures of CU traits, maltreatment history, anxiety, and depression, and a dot-probe task assessing facilitation to emotional distress. Latent profile analysis revealed a 'hypoactive' profile with low cortisol, DHEA, and testosterone, and a 'hyperactive' profile with high cortisol, DHEA, and testosterone. Profiles partially aligned with psychosocial measures used to validate theoretical conceptualizations of CU variants, and the hyperactive profile showed greater facilitation to emotional distress relative to the hypoactive profile. Findings add to a limited literature on female CU traits in relation to neuroendocrine functioning and emotional processing. Our findings also provide preliminary evidence of possible congruency between physiological and psychosocial measures underlying the identification of CU variants.