Dr. Kent Kiehl is a Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Law at the University of New Mexico and Executive Science Officer of the Mind Research Network. He conducts clinical neuroscience research into major mental illnesses, including criminal psychopathy. His answers address:
- differences in brain structure and activity in offenders with psychopathic traits;
- traumatic experiences and psychopathic traits;
- progress in translating neuroscience research into treatment applications.
- How did you get involved in psychopathy research?
My father was the editor of our city’s newspaper, and he was writing about this guy who grew up a few blocks away from us: the guy had just been arrested for killing several women. The guy was Ted Bundy. We were all fascinated by how someone could develop into a serial killer and, when I was an undergraduate at University of California – Davis, I sought out mentorship in studying serial killers and psychopathy. I worked with Michael (Rick) Levenson on developing a self-report assessment for psychopathic traits; it’s known now as the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale. Following this undergraduate work, I did my doctoral work at the University of British Columbia with Robert Hare and Peter Liddle.
- What kind of differences in brain activity/connectivity do you see between offenders with and without psychopathy?
Many of our studies show reduced activity or reduced gray matter volume in parts of the paralimbic system. Structures in this system are involved in affective processing, empathy, attention and other important functions. The specific regions we find involved include the amygdala, and areas in temporal and frontal cortex such as the anterior temporal pole, the orbital frontal cortex and, in some studies, the anterior cingulate gyrus. Sometimes the insula and posterior cingulate are also impacted by psychopathic traits. We are currently working on new standardized methods for examining dynamic brain connectivity in psychopathy – so stay tuned for some new results soon!
- Does neuroscience research provide insight into the idea that individuals with psychopathy are lacking a conscience?
Certainly, the neuroscience of psychopathy has provided some new insights into what brain symptoms/circuits are implicated in conscience. My laboratory is very focused on the role of the anterior temporal pole and the connection between this area of temporal cortex and orbital frontal cortex. We know that patients who have brain damage or degenerative neurological conditions in these areas often lack a conscience – as can be seen in some of their violent, even homicidal, behavior. Indeed, work from our lab has shown that youth and adults who commit homicides show reductions in the amount of gray matter in the anterior temporal pole. It’s one of the top areas of concern for us.
- What effects does childhood trauma have on the development of psychopathic traits?
This is another area in which we have a lot of research going on. We have developed an interview-based expert rater assessment tool (called the Trauma Checklist) to measure the severity of trauma in incarcerated individuals. The Trauma Checklist work is ongoing, but we have seen that psychopathy, particularly levels of the Factor 2 traits (the impulsive lifestyle and antisocial traits), are related to trauma history. We don’t usually find strong relationships between Factor 1 features (the interpersonal and affective traits) and trauma, but we need to do more research in this area. We are also carrying out studies looking at two different pathways for the development of psychopathy — primary versus secondary pathways to psychopathic traits. Some evidence suggests that primary psychopathy may be largely biological/genetic, and secondary psychopathy may be largely environmentally driven. Secondary psychopathy, some have argued, is more likely to be influenced by trauma than primary psychopathy. This is an active area of work in my lab, and we are keen to develop and test treatments for those with primary versus secondary psychopathy.
- Considering research is generally ahead of application in the field, what is one improvement in the field of psychopathy that you hope to see take place over the next five to ten years?
I’d like to see an expert-rated assessment for psychopathic traits that is normed and validated for youth under the age of 12. We find expert assessments of psychopathic traits are more predictive of violent outcomes than assessments based on self-report measures in clinical samples of adolescents and adults. A similar approach for children is needed. It would be great to see more developmental studies following high-risk youth through adulthood. I’d love to see more researchers doing work with high-risk populations, including people who are incarcerated. And we need to try more treatment approaches. There continue to be very few studies trying to treat psychopathic traits in clinical samples. We desperately need more clinical treatment and outcome studies.
- What would you want victims or survivors know about your research?
We are working hard to translate the neuroscience and genetic work we have done into treatment. In fact, we recently received a new grant from the National Institutes of Health to test a new cognitive remediation treatment program (in collaboration with Arielle Baskin-Sommers of Yale University) to help mitigate psychopathic traits. To my knowledge, this is the first randomized clinical trial for the treatment of psychopathic traits.
Some of Dr. Kiehl’s relevant papers are listed below:
Fink, B.C., Tant, A., Tremba, K., & Kiehl, K.A. (2012). Assessment of psychopathic traits in an incarcerated adolescent sample: A methodological comparison. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40 (6), 971-986. PMID: 22450599
Cope, L.M., Ermer, E., Gaudet, L.M., Eckhardt, A.L., Caldwell, M.F., Calhoun, V.D. & Kiehl, K.A. (2014). Abnormal brain structure in youth who commit homicide. Neuroimage: Clinical, 4, 800-807.
Sajous-Turner, A., Anderson, N.E., Widdows, M., Nyalakanti, P., Harenski, K., Harenski, C., Koenigs, M., Decety, J., & Kiehl, K.A. (2019). Aberrant brain gray matter in murderers. Brain and Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00155-y
Dargis, M., Sitney, M., Caldwell, B., Caldwell, M., Edwards, B., Harenski, C.L., Anderson, N.E., Van Rybroek, G., Koenigs, M., & Kiehl, K.A. (2018). Development of an expert-rater assessment of trauma history in a high-risk youth forensic sample. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 11(7), 713–721, doi: 10.1037/tra0000423
Shold, J.N., Maurer, J.M., Reynolds, B.L., Gullapalli, A.R., Allen, C.H., Edwards, B.G., Anderson, N.E., Harenski, C.L., Neumann, C.S., & Kiehl, K.A. (2023). Psychometric properties of the Trauma Checklist 2.0 and its predictive utility of felony re-offending among high-risk juvenile offenders. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 17 (1), 111
Allen, C.H., Maurer, J.M., Gullapalli, A.R., Edwards, B.G., Aharoni, E., Anderson, N.E., Harenski, C.L. & Kiehl, K.A. (in press). The utility of expert-rated and self-report assessments of youth psychopathic traits for predicting felony recidivism among formerly incarcerated youth. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
Anderson, N., Widdows, M., Maurer, J.M., & Kiehl, K.A. (2020). Clarifying fearlessness in psychopathy: An examination of thrill-seeking and physical risk-taking. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09847-y
