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Abnormal neuroscience: Scanning psychopaths

Nature volume 450, pages 942–944 (2007)Cite this article

Are their brains not wired to feel what others feel, or do they just not care? Alison Abbott joins researchers looking into normal neurobiology through the scope of psychopathy.

It is a rare event that patient 13 is let out of the high security Dr S. van Mesdag Clinic in Groningen, the Netherlands, and he is making the most of the attention he is getting. Already, the prison guards have had to accompany him from the University of Groningen's functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to the toilet four times in two hours. The guards indulge him with a shrug. Research psychologist Harma Meffert, who has recruited him for her study, is just as tolerant. That can't be easy, given that she has to spend at least 20 minutes resettling him into the scanner after each interruption

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References

  1. Hare, R. D. in The International Handbook of Psychopathic Disorders and the Law (eds Felthous, A. & Sass, H.) 41?67 (John Wiley, Chichester, UK, 2007).

  2. Hare, R. D. Manual for the Revised Psychopathy Checklist 2nd edn (Multi-Health Systems, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2003).

  3. Keysers, C. & Gazzola, V. Prog. Brain Res. 156, 379?401 (2006).

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Authors
  1. Alison Abbott
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Additional information

Alison Abbott is Nature's Senior European Correspondent.

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Christian Keyser's Lab Home Page

Robert Hare's Web Page

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Abbott, A. Abnormal neuroscience: Scanning psychopaths. Nature 450, 942–944 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/450942a

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