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Psychopaths are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime. These people are primarily identified by an extreme lack of empathy. Now a study finds that when psychopaths see images of people in pain, there's a pattern of activity in their brains that is quite different from brain activity in non-psychopaths.
精神变态者应对不成比例的犯罪数额负责人。这些人被初步诊断为极其缺乏同情心。如今有一项研究表明当精神变态者观看身陷痛苦的人的画面时，他们大脑的活动方式与精神正常者十分不同。
Researchers tested 80 prisoners to gauge their levels of psychopathy. They then scanned the prisoners' brains using functional MRI as the prisoners were shown photos of people being intentionally hurt.
研究人员对80名囚犯的精神病程度进行了测试。他们向犯人们展示了受害者的照片，同时使用功能性磁共振扫描囚犯们的大脑。
Participants who scored high in psychopathy traits, versus those who were not considered psychopaths, showed much less activation in the areas of the brain involved in emotional reactions, social behavior and decision making. The study is published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
将那些精神变态特征方面得分较高的参与者与那些非精神病人比较后显示，前者的影响情绪反应、社交行为和决策的大脑区域活性大为减少。这项研究发表在《美国医学会精神病学》期刊上。
Unexpectedly, when viewing the photos the psychopaths experienced significant activity in the insular cortex, which is involved in emotion and self-awareness. The researchers conjecture that the reaction may have been due to the prisoners ability to imagine themselves in pain. In a still unpublished study with other inmates, subjects were specifically told to imagine the painful event happening to someone else. In that case, those scoring high in psychopathy had a lesser reaction. The psychopath thus seems able to relate to pain—as long as it's his own.
出人意料的是，当精神病患者浏览那些照片时，他们大脑中负责情绪与自我意识的岛叶皮层异常活跃。研究人员推测，这可能是由于囚犯们联想到了自己痛苦时的情形。在另一项未发表的对囚犯的研究中，研究人员特别要求受试者去想象发生在其他人身上的痛苦事件。在这种情况下，得分高的精神病患反应较小。由此可见，精神病患似乎只能体会到自己的疼痛。
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