Murderous Minds (45 page)

Figure 2.
left: Rav, described by Cesare Lombroso as “Boy Morally Insane.” right: Testing a criminal’s pain sensitivity using an electrical device adapted by Lombroso in the second half of the 19th century. More recently, scientists have found that psychopaths’ nervous systems have a decreased response to the threat of pain compared to non-psychopaths.

Figure 3.
top: An illustration from
The Phrenological Journal
showing the locations of mental functions as understood in 1876. Traits were reflected in the shape of, and bumps on, the skull. Today, neuroscientists have the advantage of looking inside, rather than outside, the skull in their quest to understand brain function. bottom: The orbitofrontal cortex, reportedly underactive in psychopathy, is highlighted in green in this MRI scan. The upper two thirds of the highlighted region, Brodmann area 10, is reportedly less dense.

Figure 4.
A model demonstrating a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scan procedure at the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He can see a written or visual stimulus using a system of mirrors positioned above his face. The mirrors are positioned on a head coil which is part of the mechanism that detects changes in blood flow in the brain. Head movement is limited by padding and restraints to assure a sharp image. The subject can indicate his responses to the stimuli he sees in the mirror by pressing different buttons or keys on a device positioned under his hand. As he makes decisions based on what he sees, the fMRI machine detects differences in blood flow to different parts of his brain. Increased brain-cell activity is reflected in increased blood flow. The signals containing this information are detected by the machine, processed by computer, and used to produce images like those in Figures 5 and 13.

Figure 5.
The results of fMRI brain scans of criminal offenders performing a cognitive task that requires decision-making and impulse control (B). Offenders with low brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex have approximately double the risk of future arrest compared to offenders with high activity in this part of the brain, according to Eyal Aharoni of the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico and his co-authors. The images represent the average response obtained from the scans of 96 offenders overlaid onto a single brain scan image. The crosshairs are centered on the anterior cingulate cortex as seen from the side (B upper left), front (B upper right), and top (B lower left). One hundred and two non-offenders took the same test. Their pooled results (A) were used to select the precise target areas or regions of interest during the study. ACC = anterior cingulate cortex. ROI = region of interest.

Figure 6.
A DT-MRI scan showing white-matter nerve fibers in the brain. Reports suggest that a key bundle of fibers connecting the amygdala with the frontal cortex may be impaired in the brains of persons with high psychopathy scores. In this image from the Human Connectome Project, red fibers make right-left connections, green make front-back connections and blue make up-down connections.

Figure 7.
Circuits of the “moral” brain? In this model showing the interconnections of possible brain neural circuits that might underlie behavior associated with moral judgments, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex acts as an important integrating hub or center. Stroke damage affecting this area can change the moral choices a person makes.

Figure 8.
The whole brain, with the front facing left. The entire frontal lobe has been shaded orange. The amygdala is hidden deep the temporal lobe. The motor cortex is involved in planning, controlling, and performing voluntary movements. Much of the rest of this region is involved in high-level executive functions.

Figure 9.
The orbital prefrontal cortex dominates this view from underneath the brain. Some research indicates that “cold-hearted” criminals with antisocial personality disorder AND psychopathy have reduced gray matter in the prefrontal cortex and parts of the temporal lobe (indicated by orange shading). “Hot-blooded” criminals with antisocial personality disorder WITHOUT psychopathy do not show this abnormality.

Figure 10.
The inside right half of a brain split down the middle. Evidence suggests that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) may be a major processing center for the neural circuitry underlying moral decision-making. The amygdala lies below the X. The colored regions are all part of the limbic lobe. The * = septum pellucidum. Hypo = hypothalamus.