Table 1. Overview of the evidence for involved brain areas.
Brain region | Population | Method | Outcomes | Reference |
Prefrontalcortex | Offenders | PET | Reduced functioning | [6], [33], [37], [51], [52] |
Violent patients | PET | Reduced activity | [36] | |
Aggressive subjects | EEG | EEG abnormalities | [53] | |
Forensic psychiatric patients | PET | Decreased blood flow ormetabolism | [31], [53] | |
Antisocial patients | MRI | Reduced frontal greyvolume | [3], [53] | |
Aggressive subjects | PET | Reduced ventrolateralactivity | [44] | |
Violent offenders | PET | Reduced glucosemetabolism | [32], [55] | |
Murderers | PET | Reduced glucosemetabolism | [56] | |
Violent psychiatric patients | PET | Reduced glucosemetabolism | [31], [33] | |
Impulsive murderers | PET | Reduced glucosemetabolism | [2] | |
Violent patients | MRI | Less N-acetyl aspartate | [3], [32] | |
Violent patients | MRI | Lower phosphatemetabolism | [3], [32] | |
Amygdala | Murderers | PET | Lowered activity | [42] |
Psychopaths | fMRI | Reduced activation | [3] | |
Hippocampus | Violent offenders | SPECT | Low resting blood flow | [3] |
Violent offenders | PET | Reduced metabolism | [3] | |
Murderers | PET | Abnormal functioning | [6], [55] | |
Psychopaths | MRI | Structurally distinct | [6] | |
Temporallobe | Impulsive-aggressivePersonality-disordered | MRI | 20% reduction | [62] |
Anteriorcingulate cortex | Offenders | fMRI | Hemodynamic activitypredicts re-arrest | [65] |
Hemispheres | Several populations | Several techniques | Left dorsolateral prefrontalcortex deficits | [49] |
Several populations | Several techniques | The right orbitofrontalcortex and anterior cingulatecortex right | [49] | |
Affective and predatorymurderers | PET | High right hemispheresubcortical functioning | [31] | |
Affective murderers | PET | Low left, high rightprefrontal functioning | [31] | |
Violent psychiatricpatients | SPECT | Increased or abnormalleft limbic activity | [33] | |
Offenders who werevictims of child abuse | fMRI | Reduced right temporalcortex functioning | [6] | |
Psychopathic patients | MRI | Reduced right temporalcortex volume | [52] | |
Incarcerated psychopaths | fMRI | Dysfunction in the righthemisphere duringabstract processing | [56] | |
Antisocial and violentsubjects | fMRI, CT,EEG, ERP | Poor right hemispherefunctioning | [32] |
PET: Positron Emission Tomography, EEG: Electroencephalography, (f)MRI: (functional) Magnetic Resonance Imaging, SPECT: Single-photon emission computed tomography, ERP: event-related potentials, CT: computed tomography.