SynthesisMolecular psychiatry2019
A view behind the mask of sanity: meta-analysis of aberrant brain activity in psychopaths.
Synthesis in Molecular psychiatry, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 107 citations in OpenAlex.
- Transdiagnostic mapping of brain structural abnormalities and network-constrained gray matter atrophy patterns across affective and psychotic disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Beyond fear circuits: multiscale neurobiological architecture of panic disorder.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Comparing the relationship between emotional responsiveness and psychopathy across assessment types: a systematic review and meta-analysis.CNS spectrums · 2025Pooled it
- Psychopathy and medial frontal cortex: A systematic review reveals predominantly null relationships.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Emotion processing in youths with conduct problems: an fMRI meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of the functional neuroimaging literature with probabilistic logic programming.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Distinct brain structural abnormalities in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and substance use disorders: A comparative meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Meta-analytical transdiagnostic neural correlates in common pediatric psychiatric disorders.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Exploring the neural correlates of (altered) moral cognition in psychopaths.Behavioral sciences & the law · 2021Pooled it
- Functional neural correlates of psychopathy: a meta-analysis of MRI data.Translational psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- A Systematic Literature Review of Neuroimaging of Psychopathic Traits.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Emotional and attentional anomalies underlying triarchic psychopathic traits: an EEG-startle blink study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Cortical structure in relation to empathy and psychopathy in 800 incarcerated men.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Psychopathic personality traits are associated with experimentally induced approach and appraisal of fear-evoking stimuli indicating fear enjoyment.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Functional Connectivity of the Nucleus Accumbens across Variants of Callous-Unemotional Traits: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Children and Adolescents.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
- Cortical and subcortical grey matter correlates of psychopathic traits in a Japanese community sample of young adults: sex and configurations of factors' level matter!Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2023Article
- Larger left hippocampal presubiculum is associated with lower risk of antisocial behavior in healthy adults with childhood conduct history.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A neurocognitive model of early onset persistent and desistant antisocial behavior in early adulthood.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Review
- Dissociating cognitive and affective empathy across psychopathy dimensions: The role of interoception and alexithymia.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Psychopathic and autistic traits differentially influence the neural mechanisms of social cognition from communication signals.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Psychopathy is a disorder of high public concern because it predicts violence and offense recidivism. Recent brain imaging studies suggest abnormal brain activity underlying psychopathic behavior. No reliable pattern of altered neural activity has been disclosed so far. This study sought to identify consistent changes of brain activity in psychopaths and to investigate whether these could explain known psychopathology. First, we used activation likelihood estimation (p < 0.05, corrected) to meta-analyze brain activation changes associated with psychopathy across 28 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies reporting 753 foci from 155 experiments. Second, we characterized the ensuing regions functionally by employing metadata of a large-scale neuroimaging database (p < 0.05, corrected). Psychopathy was consistently associated with decreased brain activity in the right laterobasal amygdala, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and bilaterally in the lateral prefrontal cortex. A robust increase of activity was observed in the fronto-insular cortex on both hemispheres. Data-driven functional characterization revealed associations with semantic language processing (left lateral prefrontal and fronto-insular cortex), action execution and pain processing (right lateral prefrontal and left fronto-insular), social cognition (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), and emotional as well as cognitive reward processing (right amygdala and fronto-insular cortex). Aberrant brain activity related to psychopathy is located in prefrontal, insular, and limbic regions. Physiological mental functions fulfilled by these brain regions correspond to disturbed behavioral patterns pathognomonic for psychopathy. Hence, aberrant brain activity may not just be an epiphenomenon of psychopathy but directly related to the psychopathology of this disorder.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.