Parenting, gene environment interaction and prefrontal control, when emotional inattention rigidifies attention seeking

Insufficient parental emotional attention, interacting with genetic predispositions, can make attention seeking more rigid, blunt components of empathy, and increase impulsivity. This article provides a narrative and technical review of evidence from neurodevelopment, behavioral genetics, neuroimaging, and psychopathology supporting this framework. Convergent findings indicate reduced efficiency of prefrontal control over the amygdala and striatum, alterations in reinforcement processing, and heightened stress reactivity under early affective deprivation, especially in profiles with greater gene by environment susceptibility across dopaminergic, serotonergic, and oxytocinergic systems. The synthesis suggests increased risk, in subgroups, for disorders across externalizing and internalizing spectra, including borderline personality disorder, conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with emotion dysregulation, substance use disorders, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and post traumatic stress disorder. We also note increased risk for narcissistic personality disorder, as well as psychopathic traits and callous-unemotional traits frequently observed within the antisocial spectrum. In this article, sociopathy is used as a lay term corresponding to antisocial personality disorder. We propose an integrative model linking parental emotional attention, genetic susceptibility, and the efficiency of prefrontal limbic circuits to trajectories of empathy, impulsivity, and attenuated regret, with implications for prevention, clinical assessment, and interventions targeting parental emotional attention, cognitive regulation, and reduced responsiveness to immediate reinforcement.