Biology

Inside the brains of psychopaths

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A new Harvard study offers another clue into the neurological foundation of psychopathic behavior
Psychopaths make up between 15 and 25 percent of the male North American prison population
A new Harvard study offers another clue into the neurological foundation of psychopathic behavior

A team of scientists recently packed a mobile MRI scanner on the back of a tractor trailer and hauled it into a medium security prison with the goal of scanning a high volume of criminals that have been classified as psychopaths. It's estimated that while psychopaths only make up one percent of the general population, their prevalence in committing crimes mean they make up between 15 and 25 percent of the male North American prison population. So what is going on inside the brains of psychopaths?

This wasn't the first time researchers have trucked MRIs into prison to study the brains of psychopaths. We seem to be endlessly fascinated with understanding how psychopaths think and our growing insight into the neuroscience behind psychopathy is fundamentally altering ideas of personal responsibility and metal illness.

The psychopath who studies psychopaths

An infamous moment in the history of psychopath neuroscience came in 2006, when scientist James Fallon was poring through a pile of PET scans. Fallon had been studying the neuroanatomical basis of psychopathy for some time and he was starting to get a good handle on what kind of brain activity would signal those tendencies. On his desk, among the brain scans of murderers, depressives and schizophrenics, were scans of him and his family, part of a separate study being done on Alzheimer's disease.

"I got to the bottom of the stack, and saw this scan that was obviously pathological," Fallon said in an interview with Smithsonian.

Looking up the code behind the scan he discovered that he was in fact viewing his own brain. Fallon's research then turned on himself and he went on to investigate several neurological and genetic markers that correlated with psychopathic tendencies. Fallon's personal relationship with psychopathy also led him to investigate the strange combination of nature and nurture that ultimately leads a psychopathic person to express themselves through violent antisocial behavior.

After all, if his brain looked like that of a psychopath, then what separated him from a violent psychopathic criminal?

A psychopath is classically defined as a person with an extreme inability to empathize with other human beings. They also lack remorse for their actions, will comfortably exploit others for their own personal gain, and have a high level of self-confidence. Sound like anyone you know?

It's not unexpected that psychopaths have become objects of fascination for many of us. Depictions of these characters fill our television and film screens from Gordon Gekko and Patrick Bateman to Breaking Bad, House of Cards or Dexter. The public is a little obsessed with psychopathy.

With our society seemingly structured to reward the type of cut-throat behavior perfectly exemplified by psychopathy, it is no surprise that some studies have found that up to one in five corporate professionals display "clinically significant psychopathic traits".

When writer Jon Ronson investigated the topic he discovered that psychopaths comprise around 4 percent of corporate CEOs. That may sound low, but when it's estimated that only about 1 percent of the overall population can be considered psychopathic, that's still a significantly higher number rising through the corporate ranks. Ronson even goes so far as to claim our system actively rewards psychopathic behavior.

"The way that capitalism is structured really is a physical manifestation of the brain anomaly known as psychopathy," Ronson said in an interview back in 2011 while promoting his exceptional book The Psychopath Test.

One of the primary psychopathic characteristics that many scientists tend to focus on is the notable lack of empathy, with those affected seeming to display a significant inability to connect emotionally with other human beings. But is there anything structurally different in their brains to cause this lack of empathy?

The prison scans

Psychopaths make up between 15 and 25 percent of the male North American prison population

A study from King's College in 2012 found that violent male offenders who met the diagnosis for psychopathy displayed significantly reduced gray matter volumes in the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex and temporal poles. This striking, and specific, structural abnormality in the part of the brain associated with empathy and feelings of guilt, points to a clear neurological difference between regular violent offenders and genuine psychopaths.

A straightforward lack of empathy isn't enough to make someone a full-blown psychopath though. Several MRI studies have shown a more complex combination of neurological activities is occurring inside the brain of a psychopath.

A 2013 study took MRI scans of 121 prison inmates split into three groups: rated as highly, moderately or weakly psychopathic. The inmates were shown images displaying physical pain and then asked to imagine that accident happening to themselves or others. The highly psychopathic subjects displayed a pronounced empathic response to the thought of pain when imagined to themselves. Brain activity across several regions involved in pain empathy was identified as heightened, including the anterior insula, the anterior midcingulate cortex, somatosensory cortex, and the right amygdala.

It was clear psychopaths understood and empathized with the concept of pain when inflicted upon themselves. When asked to imagine that same pain inflicted upon others those psychopathic subjects displayed a very different response. Not only did those empathic areas of the brain fail to activate, but increased activity was seen in another area of the brain, the ventral striatum.

The ventral striatum is a fascinating part of the brain, known to manage reward processing, motivation and decision-making. This particular study suggested that psychopaths could actually enjoy imagining pain being inflicted upon others.

But how this actually motivates a violent or antisocial action turns out to be a little more complex than simply deriving pleasure from other people being hurt.

After all, not all those that display psychopathic characteristics turn out to be violent criminals. Dr James Fallon can attest to that. So what else is going on inside the brain to cause a psychopath to make an antisocial decision?

One study from 2016 discovered no difference in excitability of the ventral striatum between criminal and non-criminal psychopaths when undertaking a reward game. However, a significant difference between the two groups was identified in the connectivity from the ventral striatum and another brain region called the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

This area of the brain is known to manage cognitive control of behavior, performance adjustment, impulse control and general self-inhibition. In highly psychopathic criminals an abnormally high connectivity was identified between the reward-signaling ventral striatum and the behavior-controlling dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

"These observations raise the hypothesis that psychopathic criminals might exhibit a failure to adjust performance due to aberrant impact of reward expectation," write the scientists behind this 2016 study.

As well as over-valuing the reward signals from the ventral striatum, a recent Harvard study found that people with psychopathy are unable to accurately evaluate the future consequences of their actions.

This MRI study examined 49 prison inmates and discovered a weak connection between the ventral striatum and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex in those inmates with high psychopathic tendencies. Senior author of the Harvard study, Josh Buckholtz describes this part of the prefrontal cortex as vital for "mental time-travel" – that ability to evaluate the future outcomes of an action relative to the more immediate rewards.

The effect identified in the study was so pronounced that the researchers could accurately predict how often an individual inmate had been convicted of crimes relative to the strength of the connection between the striatum and prefrontal cortex. So the stronger the connection, the more the reward signals were dominating all aspects of a decision.

Buckholtz sees this as a "particular kind of brain wiring dysfunction" that results in bad decision making, regardless of psychopathy.

My brain made me do it

These scientific conclusions leave us in a strange and conflicted position. Psychopathic tendencies clearly don't necessarily lead to criminal or anti-social behavior, rather it seems that a more complicated set of neurological conditions lead to the actual expression of psychopathy in negative, antisocial or criminal action. A lack of empathy, over-acting reward centers, and an inability to evaluate future consequences all line up and lead one to make a decision that normal people would classify as psychopathic.

The legal and social implications of this research are unsettling for many. If we can classify criminal or abhorrent behavior as mere neurological dysfunction, then our entire basis for asserting legal responsibility falls apart. Intent is currently a vital aspect in asserting judgement across our legal system. If someone can defer a degree of conscious responsibility regarding their actions to simply the way their brain is wired, then where does that leave us?

The emerging field of neurolaw is grappling with that very question as neuroscientific defenses are becoming increasingly prominent in courtrooms. One fascinating study from 2012 found that judges tended to deliver more lenient sentences when a biomechanical cause of psychopathy is presented. The implication is that an individual is somewhat less personally culpable in these instances. We could call it the "My brain made me do it" defense.

We may have conscious control over our choices, but it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a variety of neurological mechanisms that influence how we evaluate the information that guides our decisions. Psychopathy is currently not officially classified as a mental illness, but some scientists are arguing that is should be, as a neural dysfunction behind the disorder has clearly been identified. But at what point are we simply regulating ways of thinking?

This increasing research into the neurology of psychopathy is not only helping us understand why some people do terrible things, but shedding light on why we all do what we do. The most confronting idea raised is that if we can identify how certain brain wiring can result in a person undertaking criminal or antisocial behavior, then the flip side is we must also associate altruistic or selfless actions to similar neurological functions.

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10 comments
KaiserPingo
This only counts for emprisoned psychopaths.
Its not uncommon that coorporate leaders, bosses and politicians are also psycopaths, and I will bet that the number of psycopaths are a lot more than 1% of the world population. Maybe as high as +20% ! Only a small portion turns into being violant and ending in prison. The rest just makes the world a worse place for all.
KungfuSteve
I guarantee that figure is TOTALLY wrong, and not Even close to the sad reality of exponentially increasing numbers of Psychopathic, and Psychopathic / Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disordered people.
I know, as not only were both my parents this way... but the entire fathers side, and countless others whom Ive met in my life. Many of them blend into society... but they are doing Great damages and abuses, to countless lives. They may not get locked up... such as my Child Abusing father... but they are out there... stealing peoples property, getting people fired from jobs, framing others, abusing people verbally / psychologically as well as physically, corrupting justice / sentencing / evidence, selling out companies / fellow citizens, and much more.
I think we are probably reaching 25 to 35% these days, on a varying degree scale of Psychopathy, and psychopathic natures.
And worse, is that many of these people have multiple issues mixed together in various strengths. Part Psychopathic, part ADHD, part Phobic / Anxiety...etc. Creating a toxic personality, thats capable of generating massive damages and negative interactions, in the world.
This includes people in the Scientific fields... such as the push of these people to use the general population as their Test-Subjects... with GMO and other toxic / dangerous chemicals. They simply do not care about the effects something could have on the Entire globe... let alone a single person. Instead, they believe they are 100% right, and will use whatever shady means, to get whatever they are after.
ADVENTUREMUFFIN
Nicely written Rich. Radiolab recently re-aired a similar controversy: http://www.radiolab.org/story/revising-fault-line/ Robert Sapolsky discusses our brain induced behavior in his latest book "Behave", and gives an awesome TED talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_biology_of_our_best_and_worst_selves. A rich area for discussion. Thanks for raising this up on ATLAS
Oldfella
I concur re: imprisoned vs other phychos. Some we shower with money, position and title. It is an individual choice how we spend our money to elevate these destructive elements to power. Please folks, spend wisely! We don't seem to be able to formulate methods to contain the damage potential. Leave it for the next generation, if we survive, huh? Gosh, I'm glad I'm old.
Kpar
I agree with the commenters above re: imprisoned vs. "free" psychopaths, but I think their estimates of percentage of population is exaggerated.
That said, I recommend the book "Without Conscience" by Canadian prison psychologist Robert D. Hare. A scary book indeed!
Jose Gros-Aymerich
Why is it currently a 'Hunt for the psychopath', same as formerly for witches and foxes? This is a medical problem, not too well defined, no evidence may exist that psychopaths, same as schyzophrenics, engage more in violent behavior; a psychopath, this is not the same a psychopath than a perverse psychopath Psychopath is the Jack Nicholson's character in: 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest', it's psychopathic taking certain mentally ill to a risky boat trip, while the one, also by J Nicholson, in 'The Shining', is a severely ill schizophrenic suffering hallucinations; both the main characters and the killers in: 'Easy ride' are psychopaths, but just the last ones are killers. Psychopathic was the activity of the 'Keystone cops', psychopathic the content of some songs from Frank Zappa and Ian Dury, psychopaths were the three in Yalta: Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, who parted the world. Docs should never act without the patient's request, if somebody bothers or is molesting, or attacks third parties, it's the judge from a regular court who could ask for a psychiatry referral. The point in the book by John N Rosen, MD, 'Direct analysis, therapy of psychosis without drugs', 'The analyst's unconscious is identical to that of psychotics', may contain a misspelling, it actually deals with psychopaths, not with psychotics. A joke said: 'Hey doc, I have double personality! -response: 'Come to my office, and we the four will discuss'
JimFox
"The most confronting idea raised is that if we can identify how certain brain wiring can result in a person undertaking criminal or antisocial behavior, then the flip side is we must also associate altruistic or selfless actions to similar neurological functions"
Can anyone explain what this statement means?
"...altruistic or selfless actions to similar neurological functions" - is this not obvious? Surely all our actions result from 'neurological functions'? And what similarity is being referred to?
mark98
Where do you feel love? I feel it in my heart. Does a psychopath feel love the same way an average person does? They leave out the brain and heart connection. They can not measure the feeling in the heart can they? Is it merely an illusion, the sensation of love in my heart?
Kathy Brown
It baffles me why judges would be more lenient with criminals who have a brain anomaly that might explain their crime. If that anomaly cannot be fixed, that’s all the more reason to lock up biologically confirmed psychopaths & throw away the key - to protect society. Most judges must still have the medieval goal of punishment rather than protecting society. Such a stupid, pointless, & ineffective way of thinking! This kind of thinking explains why our entire criminal justice system has failed. It is designed to punish, not protect.
David Schools
We have already gone back another step by attributing everything to genetics... which in turn produces the brain "wiring" (at least the "nature" part of "nature-nurture). We have been moving in the "disease" and "medical" model for all pathological disorders for a long time. Moral culpability is gradually becoming obsolete. It appears everything will be "treated" medically, not morally. There is increasingly a pill for everything. Interestingly enough there is are no pills for character /personality disorders. But also, as pointed out in the article, what about good character? This also will not be ultimately seen as "good", but simply genetics and brain wiring. There will always be the "nature -nuture" etiologies, but ultimately it will all be traced back to gene mapping and MRI brain scans.