Anatomical and Functional Differences in the Psychopathic Brain
Psychopathy is a topic that fascinates many individuals and has inspired numerous studies regarding the anatomy and function of a psychopathic brain. According to the DSM psychopathy is defined by the ability to consistently violate the rights of others without remorse. This paper will look at studies specifically concerning differences in how psychopaths process emotions, feel pain, experience remorse, and handle moral dilemmas compared to normal individuals.
One of the defining characteristics that marks a psychopath according to Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist, the PCL-R, is a lack of emotional attachment. In a study done by Muller, Sommer, Dohnel, Weber, Schmidt-Wilcke, and Hajak, (2008) criminal psychopaths were shown images of negative or positive emotions while simultaneously pressing an x or an o depending on
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Control subjects, healthy individuals with a score under 10 on the PCL-R, demonstrated difficulty completing the task when a negative image was displayed while the experimental group did not. This indicates psychopaths have less empathy for others. Furthermore, in analyzing the fMRI results, researchers found the experimental group showed significant grey matter loss in the superior temporal gyrus. Not surprisingly, the superior temporal gyrus is involved in emotional perception. Similarly, Oren Contreras -Rodrıguez et al. (year), found a link between processing facial cues and the amygdala, which is also involved in emotional perception. Participants which included psychopathic and healthy men, viewed an emotion in the center of the screen and matched that emotion to one of the images in the corner by