A Pretty Stupid Thing To DO. The recent shooting at an Aurora Theatre has to be a stupid act, unless you think suicide is rational. No doubt, the killer knew he wouldn't survive or he wouldn't have made it virtually impossible to re-enter his apartment. James Holmes was anything but stupid or he wouldn't have made it through a year as a PhD candidate in neuroscience. Most of us would never have made it to that point.
Just an Evil SOB. I have heard that reaction from several even myself. It might seem logical that there are a number of evil people in the world. That's the way my emotions lead me to believe. My first reaction was to hang him upside down, feed him a pound of laxative and beat the livin' $h.. out of him. After 24 hours to calm down, I have decided a more fruitful approach might be to find out more about what influenced his behavior so that we might be in a position to predict similar behavior in others.
First and Foremost, I Consider Myself A Scientist. With an graduate degree in chemistry and 20 years of research, I remain enamoured with scientific methodology. I studied behavioral psychology as a part-time graduate student and have read widely on neuroscience. While I know I am no expert, I find what we have learned about neuroscience to be fascinating. One of my favorite books, "Incognito" by David Eagleman at Baylor College of Medicine points that, by far, the majority of activity in the human brain is below the level of consciousness. If we had to be conscious of of things like breathing, blood flow, minor muscle movements, and swallowing we would never accomplish anything else. Almost all of our behaviors are governed by areas of our brain that are below the level of awareness.
Moving Right Into Criminal Behavior. Let's consider an incident that took place around fifty years ago. A very bright young man killed his mother and his wife and sat down at his typewriter and wrote of his wife, "..... I love her dearly and she has been a fine wife to me............ I cannot rationally pinpoint any specific reason for doing this". After other writings trying to explain his bizarre behavior he packed a trunk full of weapons, climbed a college campus tower and shot 13 people while wounding 33 more. They had to kill him in order to stop this killing spree and much of opportunity to learn more about him was lost.
Incidents Like This Are Not All That Uncommon. There is a brain disease called frontotemporal dementia. It is a disease in which normal behavior is characterized by bizarre behavior such as taking off clothes in public, shoplifting, and bizarre sexual behavior. As the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain deteriorate, the subject tends to exhibit more and more of these behaviors. Many of you will recall the example cited above as that of Charles Whitman, the sniper that climbed the tower at the University of Texas in August of 1966 and killed random victims. An autopsy was later performed and a tumor discovered in areas of the brain that influence the fear and survival mechanisms of our behavior. While that may not have been the reason for his aggressive behavior, there is considerable evidence that it was.
The Brain Is A Team of Rivals. Dr Eagleman uses this as the title of one of the chapters in his book. He cites numerous examples of biological influences on behavior. One of his examples sites a genetic make up that makes you eight times more likely to commit sexual assaults, ten times more likely to commit murder, thirteen times more likely to commit armed robbery, and forty-four times more likely to commit sexual assault. Before you suggest that we find all individuals carrying these genes and lock them up, you need to know that we would have to lock up half the world since this set of genes is common to all males. Indeed, it appears that the the world would be a much more peaceful place if there were no males. Of what value is this information? It shows us that there is a biological basis for behavior that outweighs most other factors that we consider.
What Else Can Neuroscience Teach Us? When I first read this book, I felt we might be on the edge of a break through in this area. Indeed, we are finding more and more ways to study the structures within the brain and how these influence behavior. While this may be true, they also lead me to conclude that there may not be a way to manage this complex collection of information to help eliminate behavior like the recent massacre in Aurora, Colorado. There appear to be far too many biological and environmental factors for us to do that. One thing that impressed me in the TV reporting was a young man, laying in the bed with numerous wounds, saying that he really felt sorry for the person who carried out this act, "he must have been an extremely tormented individual." The interviewer looked surprised and asked the victim if he forgives the criminal. The victim held back tears and replied, "Yes, I forgive him." I had to hold back a few tears myself. What a better world we would have if we all had that kind of love for our fellow man.
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