WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- A University of Southern California neuroscientist says his research indicates psychopaths have physical abnormalities in two key brain structures.
Adrian Raine, professor of psychology and neuroscience in the USC College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, focused on two parts of the brain: the hippocampus, a portion of the temporal lobe that regulates aggression and transfers information into memory; and the corpus callosum, a bridge of nerve fibers connecting the cerebral hemispheres.
Said Raine: "Scientists have implicated different brain regions with respect to antisocial and aggressive behavior, and all are important and relevant. But it goes beyond that to the wiring. Unless these parts of the brain are properly wired together, they'll never communicate effectively. They'll never result in appropriate behavior."
Psychopaths' criminal tendencies are typically coupled with a lack of inhibitions, emotions and a conscience.
"We don't do bad things because we will feel bad about it," Raine said. "Psychopaths don't have those feelings -- they do not have a conscience. That means they can be callous and manipulative. They don't care about other people. If they can get what they want from life by hurting other people, they'll do it."
