Friday, March 4, 2016

Criminal Minds


More and more in the news we hear about senseless acts committed by serial killers and murderers. And we ask ourselves, how can a human being even think about doing something so evil and harmful to another human being? We question the intentions of these killers and try to figure out what is going on inside their heads that could trigger such violent actions. Sadly, most of the time we aren’t able to question their intentions because most of these troubled individuals end up committing suicide.



During the first couple weeks of Neuroscience Seminar, we had Brian Sweis come in and talk about research centering around the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).  He explains how humans with damage in this region do not experience regret and how fMRI tests have shown functional activity in the OFC region during regret. However in nonhuman primates, specifically rats, we are not sure if they are even mentally capable of experiencing regret. A decision making task called Restaurant Row was constructed where the rats were put in a series of take or skip choices involving food. The data suggested that the OFC is indeed vital for representing outcomes when animals think about past decisions. In the end, we know that rats experience regret but we are still not clear if the orbitofrontal cortex is necessary for the emotion of regret. However, there is evidence that the orbitofrontal cortex is active and necessary for experiencing regret in humans and damage to it results in no showing of regret and anticipation of negative consequences. This led me to question if we can further our research and perhaps find a connection between brains of serial killers and orbitofrontal cortex damage. The orbitofrontal cortex, in my opinion, could be the reason for the creation of serial killers and murderers when damaged. 

An article I read called “How to spot a murderer’s brain” talks about the brain patterns found between the minds of murderers.  Adrian Raine is a scientist who has done extensive research on the brains of serial killers. Like other scientist, he too has noticed a distinct difference between the brains of normal people and serial killers. The difference was found in the OFC or lack thereof. The OFC of serial killers was significantly smaller or nonexistent. From the article, I learned that deficiency in the OFC not only caused no feeling of regret but other behaviors such as less control over the anger, an increased addiction to risk, a loss of self-control, and poor problem solving skills. The article changed my view on finding the definitive factor that makes up a killer, which I thought would be damage to the OFC after hearing Brian Sweis’ findings. Yes, damage or less activity in the orbitofrontal cortex can be indicative of a serial killer, but there are several other factors other than biological similarities that fall into the equation like poverty, bad neighborhoods, and poor education. Adrian Raine, the scientist who was conducting the research, did a brain scan on himself and found similarities of that of the brain of a killer. But you can see he turned out to be fine. In the end, it goes back to the classic nature versus nurture debate. We won’t be able to confirm what exactly brings forth the upcoming of a killer. There are so many variables involved and really it matters how our biological makeup reacts with the environment we live in.

                                                                       Works Cited
Adams, Tim. "How to Spot a Murderer's Brain." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 11 May 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2016.
Steiner, Adam P., and A. David Redish. "Behavioral and Neurophysiological Correlates of Regret in Rat Decision-making on a Neuroeconomic Task." Nature Neuroscience Nat Neurosci 17.7 (2014): 995-1002. Web.

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