Study finds psychopaths have distinct brain structure

Scientists who scanned the brains of men convicted of murder, rape and violent assaults have found the strongest evidence yet that psychopaths have structural abnormalities in their brains.

Psychopaths, who are characterized by a lack of empathy, had less grey matter in the areas of the brain important for understanding other peoples' emotions.

( this study adds more scientific proof to what many WS posters accept as true ) http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iop/news/records/2012/May/The-antisocial-brain.aspx

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-psychopathy-linked-specific-abnormalities-brain.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/07/us-brains-psychopaths-idUSBRE8460ZQ20120507

I wonder if this abnormality was caught early on, perhaps when the person was a year or two old, if s/he could be taught or trained to develop empathy.

Wouldn't that be great? You'd save the child from growing up to be a psychopath, AND save all potential victims he otherwise would have had.

kgeaux said:

I wonder if this abnormality was caught early on, perhaps when the person was a year or two old, if s/he could be taught or trained to develop empathy.

Wouldn't that be great? You'd save the child from growing up to be a psychopath, AND save all potential victims he otherwise would have had.

Click to expand...

Children with Autism and Aspergers also show differences in grey matter (and have problems reading emotion).

Keep in mind the studies on "Psychopaths" only reflect those with very VIOLENT backgrounds which is misleading imo. Stupid emotionally unbalanced psychopaths have problems controlling their inhibitions and end up in trouble. Smart crafty psychopaths stay OUT of jail and many do extremely well in business.

I don't think you can teach them empathy BUT if they are fairly intelligent (and not raised by abusive psychopathic parents) I have heard they can be taught with regards to weighing decisions, making sure they don't do anything that will cause problems for themselves etc...

If people used common sense methods for deciding who to screen (i.e. screen kids with crazy/violent parents/family members that have been in and out of jail) that would mean "profiling" and it would simply not be allowed for various reasons, political correctness being chief among them.

After my ex-husband committed suicide several years ago, I read an article that I have never been able to find since; I believe it was a synopsis of an on-going study of how brains of people who complete suicide are structurally different from people who make attempts or verbalize an intention to committ suicide.
I was beginning to believe I had dreamed it, but it looks like there are several universities in different country's looking at physical differences in the brain's anatomy to explain our human behavior in some situations. Thanks, noZme!