UW-Madison Psychiatry imaging study finds brains of psychopaths are different

[undeterred]

The Koenigs Lab, an appendage of the University of Wisconsin Department of Psychiatry, says something about the multidisciplinary nature of neuroscience. Named for Michael Koenigs, an assistant professor of psychiatry, the lab includes a postdoctoral researcher with degrees in psychology and comparative religion, graduate students with backgrounds in biology, philosophy and English, and a scientist trained in applied math.

Centered on the mind and nervous system, neuroscience is exploding, and there's practically no topic it won't take on, be it Shakespeare, meditation or consciousness itself. Or psychopathy. In a paper published in the most recent Journal of Neuroscience, Koenigs, along with veteran UW psychopathy researcher Joseph Newman, unveiled new evidence of a physical basis for the disorder.

In the study, Koenigs and Newman use brain scans of 40 inmates (20 psychopaths and 20 others) from Fox Lake Correctional Institution in Fox Lake, Wisconsin. In the scans of psychopathic brains, the researchers discovered poor connections between an important brain segment -- the "ventromedial prefrontal cortex" (VMPFC) -- and another crucial to emotional processing, the almond-shaped amygdala.

The study is the largest yet published that examines this link, according to Koenigs. Researchers used two types of brain scans: one testing the integrity of "white matter" structures connecting the VMPFC and the amygdala, and another tesing how well they communicate. Both types of scans found a weakened link in the brains of psychopaths.

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=35292

[Scuba]

1. Tell them to check the governor. n/t

[hue]

10. haha! my 1st reaction as well! K&R n/t

[saras]

2. Does the Constitution forbid this as a test for office? Just wondering.

[seeviewonder]

4. I would hope this is acceptable before

becoming the President. It seems reasonable to me since the person would be in control of everything from the military to the economy. If one doesn't submit to it then there is obviously an issue.

[NMMNG]

7. Sounds good to me

:thumbsup:

[applegrove]

6. Wouldn't that be wonderful if there was a test for world leaders? We can dream can't we?

[frogmarch]

3. Next comes the

"It wasn't his/her fault" legal defense for psychopaths who murder, rape, etc. It will be the fault of their poor VMPFC/amygdala connections. :eyes:

[mzteris]

11. doesn't mean they won't be incarcerated . . .

for their crimes.

maybe this is the first step in find treatment? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

[applegrove]

5. We are closer to having a test for those suckers.

:woohoo:

[saras]

8. The cynic's view: once we can test for this, ONLY psychopaths will be allowed in power

[undeterred]

9. Only psychopaths become corporate CEOs.

And I mean that quite seriously.