Psychopaths: Possibility of prevention

What is a psychopath? To many, it is just that killer in the horror movies that mercilessly ruins everyone’s life. Or it’s that one family member that drivers everyone crazy. Contrary to popular opinion and horror movies though, a psychopath is, as Joseph Newman puts it – paraphrasing Cleckly’s psychopathic construct – someone who is normal in almost every way, but behaviorally speaking, there is something off about them. They don’t react to certain things that would cause us to pause in a cautious way and change what we’re doing. So, what makes a psychopath a psychopath? What is it about the brain, a complex structure that can still manage to function in many of the necessary ways, that causes such a different group of people to behave the way they do?

The stereotype is that psychopaths are just a group of heartless and ruthless people. But, maybe they’re not as pure evil as everyone perceives them to be. Sure, there are ideas like the “Low Fear” Hypothesis, created by Lykken, that says they’re just born fearless. However, according to Joseph Newman, research has also shown that they’re simply oblivious to things normal people would be aware of, meaning that the perceived evil act isn’t actually intentional. Whatever the cause may be, psychopaths aren’t usually labeled as psychopaths unless they do something crazy – usually a crime of sorts – that would bring their sanity into question. But what if we were able to identify signs of psychopathy before they reach a point where their actions or crimes are irreversible?

Researchers working with children have now discovered that when kids with conduct problems see pictures of others in pain, certain parts of their brain don’t react they way they do in normal people. They think that this pattern of reduced brain activity “may serve as a neurobiological risk factor for later adult psychopathy.” The study was done in University College London and basically had a group of children’s brains scanned through fMRI to see their responses when shown images of others in pain. Compared to the normal children, children with conduct problems showed reduced responses, especially in parts of the brain known for empathy.  It’s important to point out that they are not diagnosing the children with psychopathy; rather this is seen as an indicator of early vulnerability. This is really important because now something can be done about it. There can be interventions to cater to the specific profile of atypical processing that children with conduct problems are known to have. Looking at the bigger picture of it all, maybe this type of intervention can prevent a possible psychopath from acting out in ways he would have done without the help needed.

Brain scans. Brain images showed that, relative to controls, children with conduct problems show reduced responses to others' pain specifically in regions of the brain known to play a role in empathy. (Credit: © Stjepan Banovic / Fotolia)

Citation: Cell Press. "Kids with conduct problems may have brains that under-react to painful images: May increase risk of adult psychopathy."ScienceDaily, 2 May 2013. Web. 15 Oct. 2013. 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130502131859.htm