psychopathic brain question

[cassanda_complex]

Are "psychopathic brains" organically driven, or does it have more to do with neural activity and blood flow?

[insane_alien]

what do you mean by organically driven?

[Iggy]

I would guess you mean to ask if it originates from an abnormal structure of the brain. I know there is some evidence that psychopathy can show up on an MRI, but I doubt that applies to every form of the disease or every cause. It doesn't prove cause either.

[cassanda_complex]

I guess I meant by organically driven is it defected on an organic level, or indirectly theorized about by neural activity. It would seem to be a case, but one hypothesis would be that it was done by clandestine remote neural technologies.

Edited June 11, 2012 by cassanda_complex

[Iggy]

Have you asked a psychiatrist or a therapist?

[iNow]

The most recent and robust research links it to specific structural abnormalities in the brain, specifically differences are seen with significantly reduced grey matter volumes in the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex and temporal poles relative to the "normal" population: http://neurosciencenews.com/psychopathy-anterior-rostral-prefrontal-cortex-temporal-poles-aspd

 

More on assessing and measuring psychopathy here: http://mindhacks.com/2011/04/02/reflecting-on-a-psychopath/

[cassanda_complex]

I don't know any psychiatrists I could ask. I don't think a therapist would know.

 

I saw a documentary about a neuroscientist by the name of James Fallon who studied the brains of psychopaths. He is an expert in the field. It turned out in his family lineage there was a lot of violence. He ended up having the brains of everyone in his family scanned through MRI, including his. It turned out he has a psychopathic brain, but since he had a nurtured environment the predisposition was never triggered. So be mindful of the future in how you treat others--they could turn out to be the next mafia hitman like The Iceman if you screw up.

Edited June 11, 2012 by cassanda_complex

[Iggy]

That's what I heard too, and iNow's link as well.

 

maybe an interesting consideration is that the auditory cortex of a person deaf from childhood is underdeveloped even if the cause of hearing loss had nothing to do with the brain. In other words, brain anatomy changes as a result of which neural pathways are being used.

 

http://www.ajnr.org/content/28/2/243.full

 

Even if MRIs detect structural differences between normal and psychopathic brains I wouldn't know how to say that the psychopathy is a result of the anatomy or the anatomy is a result of the psychopathy.

 

EDIT...

 

For example, if there is a hormone without which people cannot feel empathy and due to some genetic factor psychopathic people do not have this hormone there still could be differences in brain anatomy merely as an effect of feeling no empathy.

Edited June 11, 2012 by Iggy