Abstract
Empathy is a fundamental construct that allows individuals to perceive and understand the cognitive and emotional state of others. Empathy is not only a psychological and sociological concept; it also heavily impacts our daily lives by affecting our decisions and actions. Empathy is connected to and involves specific parts of the brain which, if damaged or of reduced volume, can lead to actions that are morally unjust, aggressive, or simply denoting a lack of understanding and sensitivity. The literature affirms that the low level of empathy, guilt, embarrassment, and moral reasoning displayed by violent and psychopathic criminals is strongly associated with empathy-linked brain regions that are smaller in size or less developed. The aim of this review is to show empirical data over the last 5 years on the connection between empathy and neuroscience among violent and psychopathic offenders, reflecting on future research on the topic.
Highlights
Aiming to understand how subregional amygdala connectivity might contribute to callous-unemotionality in conduct-disordered youth, Aghajani et al (2017) focused on the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and centromedial amygdala (CMA) complexes
The BLA is heavily involved in integrating affective value for incoming emotionally salient stimuli (Sah et al, 2003), while the CMA serves as the primary site for efferent signals from the amygdala, directing physiological and behavioral responses to emotional stimuli (LeDoux, 2007)
Review: update of neuromoral theory of impairment to neural circuitry in antisocial behaviors Quantitative EEG, low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) to assess electrophysiological sex-influenced differences of juveniles, the researchers found that CD/CU+ youths had increased right BLA connectivity and decreased left CMA connectivity, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). They found that CD/CU+ youth had lower mean bihemispheric amygdalar volumes relative to healthy controls due to hypotrophy of BLA and CMA subregions. These findings show that CD youth with CU traits and convicted of violent crimes have abnormal amygdalar connectivity and volumes in areas consistently implicated in psychopathy
Summary
In a review on brain-imaging studies among violent offenders over the last 10 years (Bogerts et al, 2018) authors found deviations in structure and deficit in function among PFC, OFC, AI, as well as in temporolimbic structures such as amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampus, areas important in both affective and cognitive empathy, and in control of impulsive and aggressive behaviors (especially hypothalamus and limbic system). Bustamante, together with the damage to the prefrontal cortex – deputy to the decision-making process, behavioral and impulse control, mentalization, and social interactions – had injuries to the orbitofrontal cortex, a region associated with automatic discrimination of a stimulus, processing of emotional signals, and affective empathy.
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