The DOI matches its Crossref record; 75 of the 75 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Reduced spontaneous but relatively normal deliberate vicarious representations in psychopathy
Open accessAbstract
Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with a profound lack of empathy. Neuroscientists have associated empathy and its interindividual variation with how strongly participants activate brain regions involved in their own actions, emotions and sensations while viewing those of others. Here we compared brain activity of 18 psychopathic offenders with 26 control subjects while viewing video clips of emotional hand interactions and while experiencing similar interactions. Brain regions involved in experiencing these interactions were not spontaneously activated as strongly in the patient group while viewing the video clips. However, this group difference was markedly reduced when we specifically instructed participants to feel with the actors in the videos. Our results suggest that psychopathy is not a simple incapacity for vicarious activations but rather reduced spontaneous vicarious activations co-existing with relatively normal deliberate counterparts.
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“In line with such independent functions, selective impairments in empathy or ToM have been observed in different psychopathologies such as autism and psychopathy.”
From On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind (2018) · cites this paper as [36]
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Cites
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Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but not Sensory Components of Pain
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BackgroundBoth of Us Disgusted in My Insula
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Method
Flagged first, then by citations
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Sorted by citations
Items 301–318 of 318
(2025) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-3-437-21835-4.00116-5
Psychopathy: Morally Incapacitated Persons
Maibom, H. L. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-8706-2_56-2
Psychopathy and Emotion Regulation: Evidence for Dynamic Attentional Biases in Incarcerated Men
Riser, N. R. E., Beussink, C. N., Miller, S. A., & Kosson, D. S. (2025) · Journal of Experimental Psychopathology · doi:10.1177/20438087251367157
“Moreover, the reduced emotional responsiveness associated with psychopathy is often no longer observed following instructions that encourage emotional responding or focusing attention on emotion-related stimuli (e.g., Arbuckle & Shane, 2017; Meffert et al., 2013).”
InfluentialPsychopaths can feel emotions and can be treated – don’t believe what you see on crime shows
Baskin-sommers, A. R. (2022) · doi:10.64628/aai.r6m9xwchp
Armony, J. L., & Vuilleumier, P. O. (2025) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009342919.030
Psychopathy: Morally Incapacitated Persons
Maibom, H. L. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-024-2252-8_56
Die neuronalen Grundlagen der Empathie bei Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörung
Pronizius, E., & Lamm, C. (2025) · PTT - Persönlichkeitsstörungen: Theorie und Therapie · doi:10.21706/ptt-29-4-452
A novel approach to affect induction using dynamic social stimuli
Kisić, A.-M., Schäfer, R. B., Dammertz-Hölterhoff, K., Nayyeri, M. D., Niccolai, V., & Dinger, U. (2025) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2025.113289
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Cortical Structure in Relation to Empathy and Psychopathy in 800 Incarcerated Men
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“We asked the following 5 overarching questions (also see Statistical Analysis): Q1: How is psychopathy related to empathy given the multidimensionality of both constructs and their potential for unique relationships?”
Utanğaç, M., & Lander, K. (2026) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-026-04084-6 · Cited by 2
“Supporting this, psychopathic offenders show reduced sponta-neous activation in empathy-related brain regions when viewing emotions, yet comparable activation to controls when explicitly instructed to empathize [49].”
Maffeo, M. L. (2026) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009322348.003
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Ge, Y., Sun, B., & Li, W. (2026) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106701
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Mistreanu, D. (2019) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/51f7d67ezfdf5z4abcz8a2cza029a48fb93b
Burghart, M., Andreatta, M., Eisenbarth, H., & Mier, D. U. (2026) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1007/s11031-026-10267-w · Cited by 1
Moral responsibility and psychopathy: the limits of the empirical evidence
Malatesti, L. (2026) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2026.2743795
Debowska, A. (2014) · University of Huddersfield Repository (University of Huddersfield)
Metadata
- Authors
- Meffert, H., Gazzola, V., den Boer, J. A., Bartels, A. A. J., & Keysers, C.
- Affiliations
- Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Keysers, Christian
- Venue
- Brain
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-07-23
- Volume
- 136
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 2550-2562
- ISSN
- 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2156
- PMC
- PMC3722356
- OpenAlex
- W2171909033
- Cited by
- 318
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 27.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Brain (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- KNAW Research Portal (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- KNAW research portal (Royal Academy of Art and Sciences (KNAW)) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (452-04-305, 451-09-006)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- psychopathy, empathy, spontaneous activation, video viewing, psychopathic offenders, neural basis of empathy, individual differences
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Brain, Empathy, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Social Perception, Criminals
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