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People with psychopathy have little empathy for others, often commit criminal or violent acts, and, unlike some other criminals, do not show reduced rates of re-offending. Despite normal recognition of some facial expressions, psychopathic people have impaired recognition of distress cues and low autonomic responsiveness to these cues — which might explain their lack of empathy.
These researchers used functional MRIs to compare brain function in six forensic psychopathic individuals and nine controls while they looked at fearful, happy, and neutral faces. When processing fearful faces versus neutral ones, controls showed increased activation in the right cerebellum and bilateral fusiform gyrus; psychopathic individuals showed decreased activ…