Psychopaths are people too

Joseph P Newman, professor at University of Wisconsin,  is an expert on psychopathy and studying different perspectives to view psychopaths. He performed many studies with male criminals from penitentiaries and discovered most showed signs of being psychopaths. With the help of neuroscience, his team and him were able to see deficits of fear, reduced emotional responses, and poor decision making. Comparable to the standard brain, the psychopath brain seems to work through different processes.

                Through many studies, they reasoned that the amygdala, which is the center of emotion, has less activity. Thus fear of consequences and other emotions needed for compassion are diminished. There is also poor connectivity with the ventro medial pre-fontal cortex, anterior temporal lobe and amygdala. The ventro medial prefrontal cortex is known to function in decision making. When it is not connected to the amygdala and anterior temporal lobe, there is a decrease in fear of consequences and disregard for other people.  The white matter, which is fat, that connects the brain is lessened and creates a broken bridge. Emotion plays a large role in our decision making process. We will take in account our well-being and the well- being of other people. However, in psychopaths, because there is a decrease in the amygdala activity and connectivity to the ventro medial pre-fontal cortex this emotion is taken out of their decision process.

                Some researchers believe that this deficit of white matter starts in the under development in childhood. As white matter begins to develop in childhood, they believe that there is a problem in this process. Some think that this deficit can be spurred by abuse or no display of love. They also have theorized that there is a specific gene inherited.

                Although that this problem is hard to catch and find, this is neurological deficit that deserves attention just like any other illness. In the article “Suffering Souls”, it speaks about the positions and attitude that many funding agencies view psychopath research.  There is a disregard to psychopaths and especially those in the justice system. Many are working to target even more specific parts of the brain to create treatments to help people with this illness.  Yet, there is not a lot of funding for this mental illness because “psychopaths are seen as predators”. Psychopaths will perform 4 violent crimes by the age of 40. Thus, this issue is not just patient based but is also economically troublesome. “Crime is a trillion-dollar-a-year problem.” One way to help cut cost is to help find treatment to a disorder that contributes to this cost.

Reference:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_seabrook