Psychopathic individuals generally show impairments in several brain regions, a finding that's helped to promote the view that psychopathy is virtually untreatable. Still, there's been no concrete evidence to support this view. New treatments show some promising signs that psychopathy is treatable, even if it's not curable.
One reason is that psychopaths lack the neural "equipment" that enables them to empathize with others, and brain imaging studies show that psychopaths seem to have irregular mirror neuron systems, as well as less gray matter in regions of the brain associated with emotion regulation and self-control.
Psychopaths also don't respond well to punishment: Prisoners who score high on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the most commonly used measure of psychopathy, are much more likely to commit violent crimes upon release. That's partly why psychopaths represent 25 percent of prisoners, even though they represent 1 percent of the general population.