ABSTRACT
The core elements of psychopathy consist of extremely low agreeableness or high interpersonal antagonism, which contribute to key characteristics of psychopathy including conning, manipulative, arrogant, callous, sensation-seeking, reward-driven, and impulsive behaviors. Research on the neural bases of psychopathy has come a long way since the report of the case of Phineas Gage, who suffered damage to his prefrontal cortex, resulting in a dramatic alteration in his personality and behavior, and who ultimately became psychopathic. The lack of strong emotion, including fear and threat, is considered one of the most distinctive features of psychopathy. Sufficient evidence has been accumulated supporting brain abnormalities in aggressive individuals, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and amygdala. However, a number of researchers have begun to suggest that there may be different brain bases to impulsive, affective violence versus predatory, planned violence.
