Pondering Morality, Antisocial Behavior, and Psychopathy with R. James Blair

Most of us have a clear sense of morality. We can distinguish behaviors that are right or appropriate from those that are wrong or inappropriate. We feel empathy for people in distress and feel guilt and remorse when our actions hurt others. However, research in psychiatry and psychology has shown approximately 1 in every 100 adults exhibit pathological immoral behaviors – a.k.a. "Psychopathy". Behavioral features of a psychopath include: superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, being manipulative, lack of remorse or guilt, callousness/lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility for their actions, impulsivity, irresponsibility, and criminal versatility. A person with psychopathy is much more likely to commit violent crimes than others. Indeed, approximately 30% of people incarcerated for murder are psychopaths.

Dr. James Blair is a neuroscientist who has been working to elucidate how the brains psychopaths might differ from brain of people without this problem. In particular he has been studying children with conduct disorder (CD) and callous unemotional traits because these children are at increased risk for psychopathy. Such children also often exhibit symptoms of ADHD. Here Dr. Blair talks about studies in which functional MRI was used to examine neuronal network activity in different brain regions of children with or without these behavioral problems. It turns out that the brain's fear center – the amygdala – fails to respond normally when the children are shown images of the faces of people in distress. Moreover, there are abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex of children with conduct disorder which may help explain their failure to control their aggressive behaviors. The good news is that most children with ADHD and CD benefit greatly from the appropriate therapies.

Links:

Lecture by Dr. Blair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rORJxl1cPyM

Review articles on psychopathy and conduct disorder:

file:///Users/markmattson/Downloads/s41572-021-00282-1.pdf

file:///Users/markmattson/Downloads/s41572-021-00282-1.pdf