Psychopathic Traits Can Be Found In Children's Brains, Researchers Find

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Huffington Post

Children with severe behavioral problems have a suppressed response to others' pain, according to new brain-scan research.

Researchers examined brain scans of kids with conduct disorder, which is marked by aggression, cruelty to others and anti-social behavior. Some kids with conduct disorder also display what psychologists call "callous-unemotional traits," which means they lack guilt and empathy.

The patterns seen in these children's brains may reveal a vulnerability to psychopathy in adulthood, researchers report today (May 2) in the journal Current Biology. Psychopaths are manipulative and lack empathy and remorse. [The 10 Most Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]

"Brain-imaging data indicate that the brain regions that seem disrupted in adults with psychopathy are also functioning in an atypical fashion in children with conduct problems and callous, unemotional traits," said study researcher Essi Viding, a professor of developmental psychopathology at University College London.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/02/psychopathic-children_n_3201957.html

[leftstreet]

1. How is it they can't feel others' pain, but feel their own?

I'm no shrink but in order for sociopathy to be anything other than a behavior disorder, seems the sufferer would have no response to pain at all. But no one is more long-suffering and filled with self-pity from imagined slights and insults than the socio/psycho/anti-social whatever they're calling them now

[Demoiselle]

2. I think you may have just defined what sets psychopaths apart...

I'm not in any way knowledgeable about this....but I've always assumed that the capacity to empathize with other people's pain is what keeps us from abusing our fellows. Is it possible that a psychopath's personal sensitivity doesn't translate into empathy or sympathy for others...and that's what defines him as a psychopath? I'm not familiar with the theory that a sociopath or psychopath feels no pain at all....

[toby jo]

7. There's actually some type of condition where you don't even feel personal pain, not even physical.

It's a medical condition - forget the name. There was a recent mass murderer who was said to suffer from it, I know my neighbor's got it. They said when he was young he was really a good football player because he didn't feel pain and could really take a hit.

You hear the banjo music from Deliverance when you look at this guy. Here's his life: beat his ex, slept around on her, didn't pay child support, got caught running a poaching ring, (Big pile of deer found down at the state park with heads sliced off) shot out the windows of exs' car, trapped my dog with steel-toothed leg hold trap, shot another one, sells dope, etc. Nothing going on when you look at him. Like a rotted piece of fruit. Not a pretty picture. One of 3 people I've met in my life I could watch die and not move a muscle to help out.

[magical thyme]

13. oh my. I hope your dog is ok.

scary what lives next door sometimes...

[GeorgeGist]

43. Adam Lanza.

[yurbud]

36. Randi Rhodes once said this is why CEO's get paid so much...

There are few true psychopaths who can make decisions that will hurt thousands of people without a second thought and then get a good night's sleep.

[pnwmom]

3. Because they lack empathy -- the ability to put themselves in another's shoes. n/t

[HockeyMom]

8. No, a lot cannot feel their own pain either

Adam Lanza as reported would burn himself. Why? Just to try to feel his own pain which he didn't. I have worked with children like this who would bite themselves until they bled, and not even flinch. If someone cannot feel pain themselves, how can they be expected to sympathize with others pain?

I wonder how many mass murders have this trait in common?

[Cronus Protagonist]

9. Suffering and self pity are not distinguishing traits of a psychopathic person

Self aggrandizement, God like complex, yes. Internally, they tend to think that they are superior, and have no experience of emotion at all. They cannot empathize because they don't have the same internal fauna that you and I have. They don't feel sorry for themselves, so they cannot even comprehend how someone else can feel sorry for themselves. They don't feel pain the same way you do either. They do not sense danger, having little to no fear of anything. They don't care about you because they don't care about themselves.

Schizophrenic patients are people who have the internal suffering you mention. The two are almost polar opposites.

[SharonAnn]

17. So, these are the future CEO's? And con men? And serial killers?

[Yo_Mama]

40. Some of them are apparently insensitive to their own pain

At least physically. I'm no expert but I recall reading case studies.

[tblue]

42. Republicans do it all the time.

I do believe there is a discernible physiological distinction in their brains. It's the same as what's described in the article, only not as pronounced.

[mountain grammy]

4. Good, if we can fix it, no more Republicons.

[mainstreetonce]

5. Sounds like

Eric Harris

[mountain grammy]

14. Yes, and I'm sure he's not the only one. Didn't mean to be flippant about important research

that could change the behavior of potentially violent people. But the descriptions do fit many Republicans too.

[go west young man]

23. Article that came out last year on the difference

between conservative brains and liberal brains. We definitely have empathy whereas they lack it. (Unless of course they find themselves in the situation they would not lift a finger to help others with.) http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201210/why-liberal-hearts-bleed-and-conservatives-dont

Here's another from Psychology Today on why they tend to be so fearful all the time. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201104/conservatives-big-fear-brain-study-finds

[daleo]

45. Interesting articles

I have read some similar stuff - there does seem to be something to it, though I think there is still a fair bit of malleability in the majority of people I.e. culture still matters.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Not surprised at all.

I've taught special ed for years. Some of the kids just come to kindergarten and are disturbed. Deeply disturbed.

[marions ghost]

10. No big surprise but can we help them?

Seems if you can identify and work with these kids early, you might develop some interventions that work to change brain patterns.

From the article

"Longitudinal research very clearly shows that callous traits and anti-social behavior are changeable across development and that children respond to interventions," she said, referring to studies that follow participants over time. The goal of the research is to better develop those interventions, and to understand why kids with these brain patterns are vulnerable to psychopathy, she said."

[LaPera]

11. They grow up to be cold-heated, compassionless Republicans selfish greedy that couldn't give a fuck

about the less fortunate nor other peoples pain - In fact they rather enjoy others pain - torture, hurting of others killing and wars for profit has no effect on these born psychopaths, many even get pleasure from all of it....This would explain a lot about slimy fucking Republicans.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Phrenology, mildly updated.

Pseudoscientific nonsense.

[bemildred]

15. Pretty much. Twaddle basically. nt

[Proletariatprincess]

16. You are probably correct about that, O mysterious one....

But, for the sake of argument,if they could tell what kind of person a child would grow up to be and if there was a certainty that that child would by a phsycopath, would we lock him up? Execute him? It makes me think of the futuristic dystopian fantasy where people were punished for crimes they would commit in the future.
Maybe it is a good thing that we can not say for certain how the brain works before we have the wisdom to deal with it.

[greiner3]

27. "Pseudoscientific nonsense."

Pseudoscientific;

"Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status.[1] Pseudoscience is often characterized by the use of vague, contradictory, exaggerated or unprovable claims, an over-reliance on confirmation rather than rigorous attempts at refutation, a lack of openness to evaluation by other experts, and a general absence of systematic processes to rationally develop theories."

I was going to use the 'bold' capability for parts of this Wiki explanation but found I would have needed to do it to the entire paragraph; overkill.

Be that as it may, please explain your post and why you call an apparent scientific finding 'Pseudoscientific'.

[LanternWaste]

41. Many religious fundies trivialize science too when it allows a premise they disagree with.

Many religious fundies trivialize science too when it allows a premise they disagree with. I do hope you remember to pass the collection plate this Sunday...

[bemildred]

44. Scientists don't let fundies decide what to think about science.

What fundies do or do not believe, or what they do about that, is scientifically irrelevant.

[Sunlei]

18. you mean like people who would hold down a terrified kid and hack off his hair?

[Auntie Bush]

35. Can you imagine a president with those qualities?

What kind of laws would they pass if they had a Rethug Senate. I really would fear for our lives if we ever got a ReThug President and ReThugs controled congress. I would especially fear it as a women.

[NoodleyAppendage]

19. The Bad Seed

Yet more scientific evidence to support the plot and theory of one of my favorite movies.

[olddad56]

20. How about they take a brain scan on the entire Bush crime family.

Might set the gold standard for psychopathology.

[nikto]

21. Anyone who has taught Public School can verify this

And the numbers seem to be increasing.

[nikto]

22. This kid needs counseling!

I know of 1 kid specifically, under great stress, who may be in-crisis right now:

[EuphoricEpisode]

24. Doesn't sociopath/lack of empath happen because of their childhood?

Okay, so now they're saying people are BORN sociopaths? I thought most psychologist would pin-point that most people who are psychopaths/sociopaths/narcissist all of the like are that way because how their childhoods were? If you let a kid do whatever he/she wants, without any good discipline, wouldn't they just run all of the place because they feel they don't need to follow any rules? Wouldn't they not care about anyone else but themselves because their parents didn't let them. Also, most serial killers are known to have abandonment issues because their parents. Ted Bundy's father walked out before he was born, and his mother let his grandparents raise him. Charles Manson was abandoned at the age of 9, and Richard Ramirez was taught to be violent because of his cousin bragging about being violent and raping in the military.

If we're going by Freud's examples of child development and narcissism, then he said we're all born with all traits of NPD, and we lose and keep some of those narcissistic traits through development. I have noticed many little kids who don't seem to care about others pain, and don't know much other than what they see/feel. I think that's just a part of our development.

After reading all about Antisocial Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, they say you can't treat it like you would Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. You can take medicines and go through therapy for these mental disorders, because chemicals in your brain cause them. They say you can't treat sociopaths. I mean, we can keep complaining about rapist, murders, and people who get excitement over hurting everyone around them, but how can we treat them? If we can't treat these disorders, then how can we prevent them?

[XemaSab]

25. Some of them have bad childhoods and some don't

It's probably why some grow up to be serial killers and some grow up to be CEO's.

[FlaGranny]

28. I used to work for

a children's psychiatric facility. Some tiny tots can be terrifying. I remember a 3-year-old who was adopted. He got hold of a kitchen knife and tried to stab his mother. He was extremely violent. I often think about where he is now, what he is up to. He's probably either dead or in prison. I remember another youngster who tried to kill his baby sister. It is frightening to think that there are young children like this. It certainly causes you to fear for the future. They are too young to understand that death is permanent, but not too young to want to kill.

[AngryAmish]

34. The sociopath/psychopath mostly depends on both

Your can be genetically (although that word is imprecise) predisposed but having a really crappy childhood can put you over the top.

Or so I've read, not my field.

[RobinA]

37. Born

with a greater risk factor, not born with sociopathy like you are born with blue eyes. Right now the thinking is that it's the innate risk interacting with environment. And obviously none of this is 100%. Every sociopath didn't have a mean Mommy and/or Daddy. Many, however, did. Just as not everybody with a horrid upbringing is a sociopath.

I'm surprised some here think this is pseudoscience. This is a pretty hot area right now in research.

[DonCoquixote]

26. let's not be too hasty

as anyone with a slight issue can be typecast and fed kiddie drugs. A lot of us Asberger's people get labeled in school as psychopaths because we do nto express emotions the same way most do.

[FlaGranny]

29. My grandson has Aspergers.

Actually, I see no resemblence to Aspergers. The kids that grow up to be psychopaths are very different.

[DonCoquixote]

30. you might have a better pair of eyes

but sadly, most schools do not, especially as asbergers is misdiagnosed.

[RobinA]

39. I Am In Mental Health

and I see this nonsense all the time. People see what looks to them on the surface like "lack of empathy" and they immediately say "sociopath." No matter that what they are seeing could be many things besides "lack of empathy," and no matter that even if they ARE seeing lack of empathy it could stem from several things that aren't sociopathy. People can be idiots, don't get me started!!!

[RobinA]

38. I Get What You Are Saying

but this is not a problem with the science, it's a problem with a lack of understanding of the science. Not that that helps you any...

[Heywood J]

31. I always knew children were the source.

If we had no more children, we would have no more adult psychopaths.

[GliderGuider]

32. Possibly a defect in their mirror neuron development?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron

A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.[1][2][3] Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in primate and other species including birds. In humans, brain activity consistent with that of mirror neurons has been found in the premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, the primary somatosensory cortex and the inferior parietal cortex.

The function of the mirror system is a subject of much speculation. Many researchers in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology consider that this system provides the physiological mechanism for the perception/action coupling (see the common coding theory).[3] They argue that mirror neurons may be important for understanding the actions of other people, and for learning new skills by imitation. Some researchers also speculate that mirror systems may simulate observed actions, and thus contribute to theory of mind skills,[4][5] while others relate mirror neurons to language abilities.[6] Neuroscientists such as Marco Iacoboni (UCLA) have argued that mirror neuron systems in the human brain help us understand the actions and intentions of other people. In a study published in March 2005 Iacoboni and his colleagues reported that mirror neurons could discern if another person who was picking up a cup of tea planned to drink from it or clear it from the table. In addition, Iacoboni has argued that mirror neurons are the neural basis of the human capacity for emotions such as empathy.[7]

It has also been proposed that problems with the mirror neuron system may underlie cognitive disorders, particularly autism.[8][9] However the connection between mirror neuron dysfunction and autism is tentative and it remains to be seen how mirror neurons may be related to many of the important characteristics of autism.[10]

[Javaman]

33. I knew a few in elementary school.

these kids were just plain evil. One in particular.