--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105
For this week’s first impression post I chose to watch the “Exploring the Mind of a Serial Killer” TED talk. I chose this video because it addresses the question I had when I first came into this course. I wanted to know why some people are serial killers.
In this video, Jim Fallon discussed how people became killers. To find this information, he looked at about 70 different brain scans of people. He did not know which brain he was looking at the time, either a serial killer’s or a regular person’s. He found that how you end up a psychopath or killer depends on the precise timing of when the brain was damaged. He also found a pattern that every killer he looked at had damage in their orbital cortex. There was a pattern in all of them, but the damage was a little different. This depended on the MAO-A gene. He went on to say that it is a sex-linked chromosome located on the X chromosome which is how it is passed from mother to son. Fallon had then found some of these genes in his family pool, so he looked at everyone’s brain in his family. Luckily, the gene has not shown up yet, but he jokes that somewhere down the line there will be some bad news.
I thought it was most interesting to hear that there is a pattern in all the serial killers’ brains. Also, I thought it was interesting that the gene is a sex-linked X chromosome and as Fallon says, that is probably why we see more male killers than female killers. Another thing that was fascinating was that it has to do with too much serotonin in the brain which is weird because serotonin is supposed to make you feel calmer. If your brain is bathed in it, it causes your brain to become insensitive to the serotonin meaning it will not work later in your life.
In addition to the gene abnormality, most psychopathic killers also were involved in a significant traumatic event during childhood. This event occurs before puberty and has a dire impact on the child’s development. As Fallon states, there are several factors (genetics, brain damage and environment) which contribute to a person becoming psychopathic.
I would believe that Jim Fallon is a trustworthy source because he is a neuroscientist and has been studying behavior for 35 years. He is a professor at the University of California as well. In his research, Fallon studied 70 different brains to base his conclusions to the audience. Through his test subjects were known killers, Fallon was able to study the brain structure of his family members to determine if the latent psychopathic gene or brain damage was present. Given his background and years of study, I believe that Jim Fallon is a trustworthy source.
While Fallon’s research studies the anomalies of a psychopath’s brain, I would be interested to investigate whether the traits mentioned in his study can be a predictor of future violent behavior. Since one of the common factors in Fallon’s conclusion is genetic, research participants could be divided into groups based on the MAO-A gene. These groups would be a control environment. Since Fallon’s conclusion is based on the timing of the damage to the brain, the participants can be monitored during childhood through puberty to identify any potential significant traumatic events (such as exposure to violence, physical altercations or abuse). With a detailed study, a correlation may more fully develop between heredity and environment. If a strong correlation is found, would this allow societies to screen children and isolate those that are more prone to violent and psychopathic behaviors?