Citation

Chialant D, Edersheim J, Price BH. J. Neuropsychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 2016; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

From the Depts. of Psychiatry (DC, JE) and Neurology (BHP), Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior (DC, JE, BHP) and the Law & Psychiatry Service (JE), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; and the Dept. of Neurology, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA (BHP).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Neuropsychiatric Association, Publisher American Psychiatric Publishing)

DOI

10.1176/appi.neuropsych.15080207

PMID

26900734

Abstract

The authors provide a comprehensive review of the neurobiology of empathy and compare this with the neurobiology of psychopathic predatory violence-the most extreme deficit of empathy. This suggests that the specific areas of the prefrontal cortex and limbic system, which have been associated with violent behavior, also appear to subserve the capacity for empathy. Damage to these regions may result in the emergence of aggression, but not of empathy, suggesting a structurally inverse relationship between the two. The authors examine the evidence for a dialectic between empathy and predatory violence and explore the implications for early interventions with empathy training in treatment-resistant psychopathy.

Language: en