Fascinating new research reveals a fundamental structural difference between the brains of psychopaths and non-psychopaths. Psychopathy is marked by a distinct lack of empathy, impulsivity, and other antisocial behaviours.
Researchers from the Nanyang Technological Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California took 120 participants and scanned them using MRI technology. They also employed the use of the Psychopathy Checklist Revised to assess the presence of traits such as those already mentioned that are associated with psychopathy.
Findings:
The researchers discovered that within psychopaths a part of the brain known as the striatum was ten percent larger than in non-psychopaths.
The striatum is a complex region of the brain which forms a crucial part of the basal ganglia. In addition to forming movements, it has a wide variety of behaviour-associated effects such as:
Decision-making
Rewards and motivations
Previous research showed that overactive striatums were often found in psychopaths. One of the researchers, Professor Raine commented: "We have always known that psychopaths go to extreme lengths to seek out rewards, including criminal activities that involve property, sex, and drugs. We are now finding out a neurobiological underpinning of this impulsive and stimulating behaviour in the form of enlargement to the striatum, a key brain area involved in rewards.”
References:
Nanyang Technological University. "Psychopathic individuals are more likely to have larger striatum region in the brain." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 May 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220510102942.htm>
This is truly fascinating, thanks for sharing!
As time goes by we're gonna have a lot more answers for why certain mental disorders and risky behaviors come up. In fact, I was working on a school project a couple of months ago and I found a study that shows that aggression can be linked to a particular genetic variation. It's pretty cool and I'll post it if you're interested.
But seriously I've been learning so much from you in the past couple of days so I'm grateful that you're taking the time out to share this content with us!