ref: Craig et al. Altered connections on the road to psychopathy. Molecular Psychiatry, 2009; DOI: 10.1038/mp.2009.40
Biological explanations of behaviour have been given a bad name. It's barely possible to describe woman as the 'weaker sex' in general physical terms without the monstrous regiment or some new man trying to get into its collective knickers making accusations of sexism. To be honest I have some problems thinking biology proves or excuses anything in human behaviour and we have to admit to a continuing history of 'biological abuse' in terms of the rotten treatment of both women and men. I have long thought that biology might open up explanation of just how pathetically animal humans are and help us not to be. Recent work on psychos, sadly not involving dicing their brain directly may be opening this ground. The reference is above. Essentially, researchers at King's College London have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy. The research investigated the brain biology of psychopaths with convictions that included attempted murder, manslaughter, multiple rape with strangulation and false imprisonment. Using a powerful imaging technique (DT-MRI) the researchers have highlighted biological differences in the brain which may underpin these types of behaviour and provide a more comprehensive understanding of criminal psychopathy. Dr Michael Craig said: 'If replicated by larger studies the significance of these findings cannot be underestimated. The suggestion of a clear structural deficit in the brains of psychopaths has profound implications for clinicians, research scientists and the criminal justice system.' While psychopathy is strongly associated with serious criminal behaviour (eg rape and murder) and repeat offending, the biological basis of psychopathy remains poorly understood. Also some investigators stress mainly social reasons to explain antisocial behaviours. To date, nobody has investigated the 'connectivity' between the specific brain regions implicated in psychopathy. Earlier studies had suggested that dysfunction of specific brain regions might underpin psychopathy. Such areas of the brain were identified as the amygdale, ie the area associated with emotions, fear and aggression, and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the region which deals with decision making. There is a white matter tract that connects the amygdala and OFC, which is called the uncinate fasciculus (UF). However, nobody had ever studied the UF in psychopaths. They found a significant reduction in the integrity of the small particles that make up the structure of the UF of psychopaths, compared to control groups of people with the same age and IQ. Also, the degree of abnormality was significantly related to the degree of psychopathy. These results suggest that psychopaths have biological differences in the brain which may help to explain their offending behaviours. This may be no great shock but we may now develop a coherent understanding of the possible brain networks that underlie psychopathy, and potentially towards treatments for this mental disorder. I'd take the view here that the work should be aimed at identifying potential psychos and finding new ways to stop them harming themselves and others. Some interesting ethics will get itself entangled here. Knowing we have some physical way of identifying the bastards, the question of whether we should put them down arises in rather powerful form. I'm more interested in how such techniques might allow a new and severe form of self-analysis and improvement. I almost become psycho myself after having to bend down for even a short length of time (diabetes) or just thinking about politicians or our local council. At a more abstract level, much has been made of root metaphors in language creating different realities or at least world-views. I rather like the idea this could just be about a few dots missing or too many in certain parts of brains! On the ethics, I'd shoot the psychos, but fear they will have already taken over the scanning machines long before we get ethical enough to deal with them! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
