Psychopaths have similarities of brain structure, which are different from the rest of the population.
A study led by German researchers at Jülich and Rwth Achen University compared male brain scans diagnosed as a psychopath from brain scanning from male volunteers without this condition.
“Psychopathy is one of the greatest risk factors for serious and persistent violence,” writes researchers in their document.
“To detect his neurobiological substrates, we studied 39 men psychopathic persons and agreed control using structural magnetic resonance imaging and a list of psychopathy verification (PCL-R).”
Related: How the Psychopaths process can explain their lack of empathy
The PCL-R interviews combine the results of the professionals and official records to make three points: a total score, a 1 factor score that measures interpersonal and emotional features, and 2 factor score measuring impulsive and anti-social behavior.
Although the differences in the brain structure were only minor differences that correspond to 1 factor scores when it comes to 2 factors, investigators found a significant decrease in certain brain regions between people who rated a high score – including brain trunk, Thalam, basic ganglia and isolated cortex.
Researchers checked the structure of the brain according to psychopathy assessments. (Pieperhoff et al., European Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Archives2025)
Studies have shown that these regions mediate in control of involuntary actions and are related to emotional processing, sensory information, motivation and decision making. In other words, these functions play an important role in determining how we respond to our environment.
In addition, the brain of psychopathic individuals was found to be approximately 1.45 % on average. Smaller than the controls. It is difficult to interpret, but can mean human development problems classified as psychopaths.
“The current results show that behavioral disorders recorded by PCL-R factor 2 are associated with volume deficiency in regions belonging to the front and povortic chains that could be related to behavioral control,” the researchers wrote.
This is a relatively small -scale study with a limited variety of subjects and will require additional research to collect more data. The results mean anti -social and impulsive behavior for those who have psychopathic personalities can have a major impact on common neurological qualities.
Future studies may also take into account other possible causes of these brain structure, such as drug abuse or traumatic experience, to determine the cause and consequences more clearly.
The debate continues to classify the exact classification of psychopathy, which usually manifests itself as a chronic lack of empathy, manipulative behavior and a tendency to be impulsive and risk.
Although the level of psychopathy may vary from person to each person, it can also lead to aggressive and violent acts, as researchers in this latest study emphasize – and with a better understanding of the condition, it can be something we can change.
“In conclusion, these conclusions are compatible with the Dimensions of the PCL-R construct and show a particularly strong connection between anti-social behavior to smaller tombs in the widespread subcortical regions of the brain,” the researchers wrote.
The investigation has been published European Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Archives;