Psychopaths, platypus, mammalian infants - REM sleep but no dreams may indicate white matter disconnect.
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008Last January I wondered if psychopaths dream — and noted that the only mammal (or maybe one of the few mammals) that doesn’t dream is a platypus. This post follows up, with a discussion of the “Platypus Defense” as part of the murder trial of Hans Reiser. Plus platypus genome and microRNA and transposable elements [...]
Newsflash: Psychopaths choose exploitation over cooperation
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Lest anyone have any doubts: psychopaths are out for themselves. The abstract (reproduced in full below the jump) says it all:
Diminished cooperativeness of psychopaths in a prisoner’s dilemma game yields higher rewards.
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Touched by evil: Fritzl, Filyaw and Reiser
Friday, May 9th, 2008When this happens, we are all touched by evil.
Josef Fritzl, Vincent Filyaw, and Hans Reiser. Three monsters, who committed atrocities as instrumentalities — as the means to an end, not as the end in and of themselves. One, to shut up his daughter so she wouldn’t rat him out for incest. Two, [...]
A Psychopath Unplugged
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008This post is about the neural correlates of those who seek power for power’s sake — without any emotional component — but first, a Dateline NBC example:
A 12 year old girl accused her stepfather of sexually abusing her. Because the stepfather felt he was wrongly accused, he built a bunker in the backwoods, and [...]
What motivates child animal abusers who grow into violent adults
Monday, March 10th, 2008 I don’t know whether killing a hawk with a 9-iron
was truly animal cruelty or just a really dumb way an upset pro golfer used to banish a hawk who was interrupting the filming of a golf instructional video.
Regardless, the reports don’t indicate that John Henry “Tripp” Isenhour III was launching golf balls at the hawk [...]
Antisocial Genetic Type for ADHD has genetic variant for using up dopamine more quickly than normal
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
About 3000+ children diagnosed with ADHD were then tracked for many years to see if they developed antisocial behavior. The children were also genotyped as to a particular gene, the catechol O-methyltransferase gene (COMT) gene. The COMT gene is known to have variants associated with schizophrenia and other conditions involving trouble with cognition.
Lo [...]
Superbowl Sunday: Why do men kill their wives?
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008Superbowl Sunday coming up — so I’m focusing on domestic violence. (There is no rigorous study that domestic violence increases after the Superbowl).
“ Suspected, convicted and charged”, graphic from Boston Globe, 07.22.07 ( Keith O’brian, “Why do men kill their wives?”visited 01.28.08)
Domestic violence has always been implicitly given a “diminished capacity” sort of [...]
“The Moral Instinct”, New York Times Sunday Mag Cover Story
Sunday, January 13th, 2008
The NYT Sunday Magazine cover story this week, “The Moral Instinct,” by Prof. Steven Pinker, is about how we think about morals. Or how we think we think about morals:
The science of the moral sense also alerts us to ways in which our psychological makeup can get in the way of our arriving at the [...]
Envy and Gloating Are Not Recognized Well By People With Aspergers and High Functioning Autism
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
Envy and gloating (Schadenfreude). Can you recognize them in other people?
People with ventromedial prefrontal brain lesions have trouble recognizing envy and gloating in others.
And, here is a new report, people with autistic spectrum disorders don’t recognize envy and gloating in others. From Shamay-Tsoory, SG, at the U of Haifa:
. . .Individuals with [Asperger's] and [...]
Do Psychopaths Dream?
Friday, January 4th, 2008Updated: 02.02.08
Did you every wake up and say, “Wow. That dream was so real.”
My guess is that psychopaths — at least some — don’t do that. If you want to see if someone has psychopathic tendencies, maybe a one question, binary, yes-or-no question is, “do you dream” ?
I’m researching white matter as part of [...]
ISO Psychopath or Narcissist
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008Google Trends is a good way to waste time.
Here’s an interesting analysis: what term is searched more, “psychopath” or “narcissist”?
Results (right click and you can enlarge, or the link above should take you to this analysis)
Here are some excerpts of an article called which showed up in the search, Six Ways To Spot The Workplace [...]
Movie Review:”Margot at the Wedding” and “The Hoax”
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008A new feature: Neuro movie reviews.
How come movie reviewers aren’t required to understand human nature?
Are they all entertainment reporters? Do they not know how to write a critique, including the emotional content of the story? Like this one for Harold and Maude, one of my all time favorites, written by Roger Ebert in 1971? How [...]
Brain scan shows when people think you’re lying
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007Jury consultants, start your engines
Let’s say your client — the one with the violent past, long rap sheet, and general air of no credibilitiy whatsoever — is on trial for murder.
He tells his story: “The other dude did it!”
You believe him.
Will anyone else believe him? How should he present his story to the jury? [...]
More Psychopaths
Monday, December 17th, 2007
More on psychopaths. I was watching a tv show last night where an FBI criminal profiler provided running commentary to Charles Manson’s interview from some time ago. Basically, she (the FBI profiler) was interpreting Manson’s 1987-on camera statements in light of what is known about the way a psychopath thinks.
What a show. [...]