Successful and unsuccessful psychopaths: A neurobiological model

Abstract

Despite increasing interest in psychopathy research, surprisingly little is known about the etiology of non-incarcerated, successful psychopaths. This review provides an analysis of current knowledge on the similarities and differences between successful and unsuccessful psychopaths derived from five population sources: community samples, individuals from employment agencies, college students, industrial psychopaths, and serial killers. An initial neurobiological model of successful and unsuccessful psychopathy is outlined. It is hypothesized that successful psychopaths have intact or enhanced neurobiological functioning that underlies their normal or even superior cognitive functioning, which in turn helps them to achieve their goals using more covert and nonviolent methods. In contrast, in unsuccessful, caught psychopaths, brain structural and functional impairments together with autonomic nervous system dysfunction are hypothesized to underlie cognitive and emotional deficits and more overt violent offending.

No clear evidence for a positive association between the interpersonal-affective aspects of psychopathy and executive functioning

“…Note, however, that Gao and Raine (2010) made this suggestion for non-convicted, 'successful' psychopaths, who may be assumed to present relatively few Factor 2 characteristics in combination with strong Factor 1 features.…”

Insensitivity to suffering: the relation of psychopathic traits to somatic processing, first-person and third-person pain.

“…It is so frequently stated that it is almost an article of faith that psychopathy entails profound deficits in emotional processing; emotion recognition deficits (Dawel et al, 2012;Wilson, Juodis & Porter, 2011), diminished fear-potentiated startle (Caes et al, 2012;Patrick, Bradley & Lang, 1993), poor fear-conditioning (Hare, 1978), reduced physiological reactivity to aversive stimuli (Gao & Raine, 2010;Lorber, 2004). Pain shares many features with the emotions, including a prominent affective-motivational component (Melzack & Casey, 1968), overlapping central nervous system organization (Etkin, Egner & Kalisch, 2011;Shackman, Salomons, Slagter, Fox, Winter & Davidson, 2011) and obvious relevance to the behaviour o f people who have been characterized as psychopathic.…”

“…However, given the difficulty of identifying and researching successful psychopaths, much current knowledge about psychopathy is based upon the study of incarcerated individuals, and thus little is known about the etiology o f successful psychopaths. As pointed out by Gao and Raine (2010), research findings based upon incarcerated individuals may not generalize to psychopaths in the community, and may pertain more to criminality than psychopathy itself. Additionally, understanding the etiology o f psychopathy in the community may reveal " protective" factors preventing successful, non-criminal psychopaths from engaging in a criminally deviant lifestyle.…”

“…Moreover, due to the convenience of recruitment, the majority of studies on non incarcerated psychopaths have focused on university students who score relatively high on psychopathic characteristics (Gao & Raine, 2010). University students with psychopathic traits have been found to show similar emotional and cognitive deficits to incarcerated psychopaths, including response modulation deficits, autonomic hyporeactivity, and risky decision making (e.g., Osumi, Shimazaki, Imai, Sugiura & Ohira, 2007;Mahmut, Homewood & Stevenson, 2008;Gao & Raine, 2010).…”

“…University students with psychopathic traits have been found to show similar emotional and cognitive deficits to incarcerated psychopaths, including response modulation deficits, autonomic hyporeactivity, and risky decision making (e.g., Osumi, Shimazaki, Imai, Sugiura & Ohira, 2007;Mahmut, Homewood & Stevenson, 2008;Gao & Raine, 2010). Furthermore, as previously mentioned, research findings based upon incarcerated individuals may not generalize to psychopaths in the community and may pertain more to criminality than psychopathy itself (Gao & Raine, 2010). For these reasons, psychopathy was viewed as dimensional trait and assessed in a university sample.…”