A team at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry says its finding means that there is simply no point treating psychopaths with current "behavioural" treatments as they "may be born to kill", the 'Daily Mail' reported.
The scientists said the differences in psychopaths' brains mark them out even from other violent criminals with anti-social personality disorders (ASPD), and from healthy non-offenders.
Nigel Blackwood, who led the study, said the ability to use brain scans to identify and diagnose this sub-group of violent criminals has important implications for treatment.
"We describe those without psychopathy as 'hot-headed' and those with psychopathy as 'cold-hearted'. The 'cold- hearted' psychopathic group begin offending earlier, engage in a broader range and greater density of offending behaviours, and respond less well to treatment programmes in adulthood compared to the 'hot-headed' group," Blackwood said.
For their study, the scientists team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 44 violent adult male offenders in Britain who had already been diagnosed with anti-social personality disorders. (MORE)