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Psychopaths tend to have poor olfactory sense
Saturday September 22, 2012 10:11:53 PM,
IANS
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Sydney: People with
psychopathic tendencies seem to have a poor sense of smell, which
points to inefficient processing in the brain's front part, says a
study.
Psychopathy covers a severe personality disorder characterized by
callousness, manipulation, sensation-seeking and anti-social
behaviours, traits which may also be found in otherwise healthy
and functional people.
Studies have shown that such people have impaired functioning in
the front part of the brain - the area largely responsible for
functions such as planning, impulse control and acting in
accordance with social norms, the journal Chemosensory Perception
reported.
Conversely, a dysfunction in these brain areas is linked to an
impaired sense of smell, according to Mehmet Mahmut and Richard
Stevenson, from Macquarie University, Australia.
Mahmut and Stevenson looked at whether a poor sense of smell was
linked to higher levels of psychopathic tendencies, among 79
non-criminal adults living in the community, according to a
Macquarie statement.
They assessed the participants' olfactory ability as well as the
sensitivity of their olfactory system.
They also measured subjects' levels of psychopathy, looking at
four measures: manipulation; callousness; erratic lifestyles; and
criminal tendencies.
They also noted how much or how little they emphasized with other
people's feelings.
The researchers found that those individuals who scored highly on
psychopathic traits were more likely to struggle to both identify
smells and tell the difference between smells, even though they
knew they were smelling something.
Mahmut and Stevenson concluded: "Our findings provide support for
the premise that deficits in the front part of the brain may be a
characteristic of non-criminal psychopaths."
"Olfactory measures represent a potentially interesting marker for
psychopathic traits, because performance expectancies are unclear
in odour tests and may therefore be less susceptible to attempts
to fake good or bad responses," they added.
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