Natural born killers?
Psychology Today
By: PT Staff
Jan/Feb 95

Questions whether violent criminal behavior is a mental disorder.
Research of Adrian Raine, Ph.D., who discovered that the prefrontal
cortex, the brain region behind the forehead, was less active in
murderers; Further details of the study; Implications for justice--and
for rehabilitation.

By: PT Staff
Prefrontal Cortex

Is violent criminal behavior a mental disorder? A University of
Southern California psychologist says yes--and he'll show you brain
scans to back up his claim.

Adrian Raine, Ph.D., led a team that compared brain activity in 22
murderers and 22 normal folks. Their tool of choice: the PET scan, an
imaging technique that measures the brain's utilization of glucose,
its primary fuel. The scans indicate which areas of the brain are
active--and which are lying low.

The researchers discovered that the prefrontal cortex, the brain
region right behind the forehead, was less active in the murderers.
Prefrontal deficiencies have been associated with a variety of
behaviors--risk taking, rule breaking, aggression, and impulsivity--
that can lead to violence.

But there's a catch. The murderers in the study had all pleaded not
guilty by reason of insanity. Might mental illness account for their
abnormal PET scans? No, says Raine; insanity is a legal concept, not a
medical condition. The variety of mental disorders the killers cited
in their insanity pleas do not explain their lower prefrontal
activity.

If further studies confirm that murderers' brains are biologically
different, does this mean that some of us are natural born killers?
Not at all. Raine, who says his own brain scan resembles that of a man
who killed 43 people, thinks that biological and environmental factors
are both essential components of violent behavior.

But the idea that killers' brains are different has profound
implications for justice--and for rehabilitation. Cognitive
remediation training has helped brain-injured patients recover lost
function. If such therapy is able to help violent offenders beef up
their brain to compensate for an underactive prefrontal cortex, the
changes might show up on a PET scan. Come parole time, those scans
could be far more convincing evidence of rehabilitation than a
convict's professed remorse.

PHOTO: Woody Harrelson and Juliet Lewis

Psychology Today, Jan/Feb 95
Article ID: 1362

Article Link:
http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19950101-000002.html