So, the brain of a psychopath | The

Although collective imagery always turns to delinquency and malice when it comes to psychopathy, this personality disorder is something more complex than one might suggest such badociation. All offenders are not psychopaths, not all psychopaths are Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal villain of The Silence of the Innocent . "Psychopaths are people with interpersonal and emotional management problems, apparently they are cold, although it is not true that they do not have emotions." – they have them and are very intense, what they do not have is remorse, which creates a tendency to delinquency, but not in all cases of course ", explains Dr. Jesús Pujol, director Research Unit of the Magnetic Resonance Unit of the Radiology Department of the Hospital del Mar, Barcelona. He has led a scientific journal of other published studies and discovered that the brain of psychopaths is different. Research indicates that emotional stress in childhood precipitates the excessive maturation of certain areas of the brain as a system of protection from suffering, but also ends up making it difficult to manage emotions.

The complexity of psychopathy transcends stereotypes. In fact, a study published in 2013 in the Journal of Forensic Science had already warned that Lecter's image as a prototype of the psychopath was not even very realistic. The character has been described as "an elite psychopath with exaggerated, sophisticated and cunning intelligence levels, sometimes even superhuman and super-demitic levels." According to the study of Anton Chigurh, the character embodied by Javier Bardem in Where the weak are not .

The range of behaviors is wide, but all psychopaths coincide. one thing: the brain changes that differentiate them from other individuals without this disorder. Pujol and his team have reviewed more than 400 scientific articles in which the brains of people with psychopathy have been badyzed by magnetic resonance imaging. The meta-badysis, published in the journal Scientific Psychological Medicine concluded that the mind of psychopaths exhibited an accelerated maturation of various brain regions related to emotional and cognitive processing. "The brain of psychopaths is anatomically and functionally different.There are differences between the areas that deal with cognition and reasoning and those that deal with emotional activity." Relationships between these two areas fail, Pujol explains,

The researchers concluded that, from the anatomical point of view, there was "apparent atrophy of gray matter" in the regions of the temporal lobes (where the amygdala is related to emotions) and frontal. (Responsible for cognitive functions). "However, what we postulate is that in fact, there has been an increase in the white matter, which implies a supersaturation of these areas," says Pujol

The study suggests that the origin of this accelerated maturation of certain regions of the brain u is having experienced stressful emotional situations at an early age. The brain develops this excessive maturation to protect itself from the circumstances that make it suffer. "In a context of emotional stress, the child triggers an excessive maturation which implies, on the one hand, a blockage to escape suffering and, on the other hand, transforms it into an unscrupulous person. and without mercy ", explains the doctor. By maturing early, the child increases his ability to tolerate suffering and manages to avoid this emotional situation that hurts him. However, this defense system causes collateral damage: "They do not have an emotional brake," says Pujol. The doctor observes that it is not a trauma, but something that persists over time, to the point of modulating the anatomy of the brain.

In practice, this cerebral alteration provokes activation in the face of a moral dilemma. of both systems (cognitive and emotional) is blocked. Neither their reasoning ability nor their feelings or emotions are canceled. In reality, "the badociation between emotion and cognition in decision making is blocked," says the doctor.

Similarities with the use of steroids

The researchers also found similarities between the brain of psychopaths and people who have been consuming androgenic steroids for more than 10 years (the latter). the substances are generally used to improve sports performance or increase muscle mbad). Pujol notes that such a similarity does not mean that steroid users end up developing a long-term psychopathic disorder.

But Pujol notes that such similarity does not mean that steroid users end up developing a long-term psychopathic disorder. "There is an anatomical similarity of the two pathologies.It is true that the control of impulses and the behavior can change after having consumed steroids for long periods, one is far from thinking that this can generate a psychopathy."