Hi, I am a psychology student and am very interested in understanding psychopaths. What sets psychopaths apart on a neurological or neuropsychological level?
Hi Alison! That's a really great (and big) question - people have been wondering about this for decades, and there's still a lot of controversy over it. There are many papers discussing the neurological dysfunctions or defects in people with psychopathy:
- This paper, for example, finds alterations in interregional connectivity in individuals with psychopathy, and links this to previous work suggesting a pattern of abnormal corpus callosums (the structure that connects the two brain hemispheres) within this population. This is very similar to what Julianna was talking about in the post above!
Keep in mind, there are those who argue that neuroimaging data in psychopathy is inconsistent - perhaps due to variability in the criteria used to identify psychopathy or the grouping of psychopathic subtypes:
I think there is much more than neurological differences that separates individuals with psychopathy from individuals without psychopathy. Even within the disorder, there is a distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy (the former thought to be due to biological defects and the latter a consequence of environmental/social issues). There is also said to be evolutionary reasons for the development of psychopathic traits!
This is the great thing about this field - there are so many different approaches you can take to understand the subject. Hope this helps a bit!
Research shows that people who score high on the PCL-R (test for psychopathic traits) tend to have less communication between the parts of their brain that regulate emotion and social interactions. One structure in particular, is the amygdala, which is in charge of your fight or flight response. People with high psychopathic scores don't have as much activity in this part of their brain which affects fear and anxiety levels. This article goes over a study that looked at the brain functions of people incarcerated in Wisconsin who were diagnosed with psychopathy compared to those who are not diagnosed with the disorder.
Hi Alison! That's a really great (and big) question - people have been wondering about this for decades, and there's still a lot of controversy over it. There are many papers discussing the neurological dysfunctions or defects in people with psychopathy:
- This paper, for example, finds alterations in interregional connectivity in individuals with psychopathy, and links this to previous work suggesting a pattern of abnormal corpus callosums (the structure that connects the two brain hemispheres) within this population. This is very similar to what Julianna was talking about in the post above!
Keep in mind, there are those who argue that neuroimaging data in psychopathy is inconsistent - perhaps due to variability in the criteria used to identify psychopathy or the grouping of psychopathic subtypes:
I think there is much more than neurological differences that separates individuals with psychopathy from individuals without psychopathy. Even within the disorder, there is a distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy (the former thought to be due to biological defects and the latter a consequence of environmental/social issues). There is also said to be evolutionary reasons for the development of psychopathic traits!
This is the great thing about this field - there are so many different approaches you can take to understand the subject. Hope this helps a bit!
Research shows that people who score high on the PCL-R (test for psychopathic traits) tend to have less communication between the parts of their brain that regulate emotion and social interactions. One structure in particular, is the amygdala, which is in charge of your fight or flight response. People with high psychopathic scores don't have as much activity in this part of their brain which affects fear and anxiety levels. This article goes over a study that looked at the brain functions of people incarcerated in Wisconsin who were diagnosed with psychopathy compared to those who are not diagnosed with the disorder.