(Ali Patillo/ Inverse) — One in four people will show patterns of antisocial behavior at least once during their childhood and adolescence. From stealing to bullying, lying, or even committing violence, most people grow out of these behaviors.
But for about 10 percent of the population, antisocial behavior never goes away, persisting into adulthood. In a new study, scientists scanned the brains of 672 people to discover that people who have antisocial conduct throughout their lives have smaller brains than those who do not.
Individuals who showed antisocial behavior consistently up to age 45 had a thinner cortex and smaller surface area in brain regions associated with executive function, motivation, and affect, when compared to people who were not antisocial.
By contrast, the research team didn’t see any widespread structural brain abnormalities in people who exhibited antisocial behavior only during adolescence.
The study’s findings, published Monday in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, suggest these differences in brain structure may make it harder for people to develop the social skills they need to stop them from engaging in the antisocial behavior in the first place, Christina Carlisi, a co-author on the study and researcher at University College London said. (…)