Looking into the criminal mind

Considering the recent deadly rampage that occurred at Virginia Tech and the execution style shooting of the Amish elementary school girls shot at close range late last year, it is difficult to imagine that it could get worse. Then, last week, the FBI received 40 copy-cat threats from California to New York claiming to beat the death toll exacted at Virginia Tech, mostly from students. The simple question we all ask is why.

Psychologists and neuroscientists are beginning to use hi-tech imaging technologies to help answer this question. An article posted this week at Technology Review summarizes some of the results from research groups around the world using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the difference between psychopathic/sociopathic and normal minds and help us understand why.

When normal people see pictures of extreme violence, the fMRI indicates that the empathy-generating limbic system, specifically the amygdala, is active. However, in psychopathic subjects, the amygdala shows reduced if any activity at all. Scientists call this condition “limbic underactivation,” which results in a lack of empathy and emotional control as well as a lack of fear. In addition, recent fMRI scans have found similar deficits in the moral reasoning center, the frontal cortex, which may also help to explain why some respond to tragic events with such moral abandon.

Interestingly, limbic underactivation is also exhibited by those in heroic professions such as police officers, firemen, and fighter pilots. These professions require a lack of fear and lack of strong emotion in the face of tragedy. These individuals would be very well suited for such a position and may even have a need for strong emotional stimuli that the job provides.

In the Amish shooting, I keep thinking about one amazing 13-year-old hero. Her name was Marian Fisher and she offered herself up in exchange for saving the others from a cold-blooded murderer and child molester who had bound the little girls with wire and plastic. She said to the gunman, “Shoot me and leave the other ones loose.” What made her stand face to face with the murderer and show such courage and self-sacrifice? Can it be explained or tangibly measured by limbic underactivation, or did environmental conditioning, genes and/or hormones play a role?

It’s still much too early to say whether neuroscience or psychology can explain violent behaviour but I hope research finds out soon — it may mean that offenders previously considered untreatable could be diagnosed before another tragedy occurs.