Psychopathic Traits Can Be Found In Children's Brains, Researchers Find [View all]
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
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