Research Explained
Read about my research in plain English
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We found little evidence that psychopathy is related to medial frontal cortex activity
For decades, scientists have thought the medial frontal cortex may play a critical role in psychopathy. We put this hypothesis to the test by gathering the findings from 101 MRI studies.
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Less switching between large-scale brain networks among people with psychopathy
Psychopathic people are callous and deceitful, and they often break laws. Our new paper shows that psychopathic people’s brain networks interact differently than non-psychopathic people’s, adding to growing evidence.
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What happens in a psychopathic person’s body when they’re trying to understand another person’s facial expression?
People with psychopathy have difficulty empathizing with other people and often harm other people emotionally and physically. Past research has shown that people with psychopathy do not label another person’s facial expressions – for example, “this person is afraid” or “this person is angry” – in the same way that healthy people do. Could this…
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Psychopathy is rarely related to amygdala activity
Maybe you’ve learned that people with psychopathy have an underactive amygdala, the so-called “fear center” of the brain. Do the data support that claim? Not really, according to my new review with Mickela Heilicher and Mike Koenigs.
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Which brain regions are consistently related to psychopathy across studies?
Scientists have spent 20 years using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to ask a question that is of great interest to the public, the focus of countless podcasts, TV shows, movies, and conversations around the kitchen table: what is going on inside a psychopathic person’s brain? Or, more scientifically, what are the neural correlates of psychopathy?…