![]() They merely tip you in one direction or another.Īnd yet: "When I put the two together, it was frankly a little disturbing," Fallon says with a laugh. He doesn't believe his fate or anyone else's is entirely determined by genes. Serotonin affects your mood - think Prozac - and many scientists believe that if you have a certain version of the warrior gene, your brain won't respond to the calming effects of serotonin.įallon was prompted to study his brain after his mother, Jenny, told him his ancestry was full of alleged murderers.įallon's being tongue-in-cheek - sort of. This gene, which has been the target of considerable research, is also known as the "warrior gene" because it regulates serotonin in the brain. He looked at 12 genes related to aggression and violence and zeroed in on the MAO-A gene (monoamine oxidase A). Along with brain scans, Fallon also tested each family member's DNA for genes that are associated with violence. Still, he says the evidence is accumulating that some people's brains predispose them toward violence and that psychopathic tendencies may be passed down from one generation to another.Īnd that brings us to the next part of Jim Fallon's family experiment. Scientists are just beginning to study this area of the brain - much less the brains of criminals. ![]() "If you look at the PET scan, I look just like one of those killers."įallon cautions that this is a young field. What he didn't want to reveal was that his orbital cortex looks inactive. "And I took a look at my own PET scan and saw something disturbing that I did not talk about," he says. Conveniently, he had everything he needed: Previously, he had persuaded 10 of his close relatives to submit to a PET brain scan and give a blood sample as part of a project to see whether his family had a risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.Īfter learning his violent family history, he examined the images and compared them with the brains of psychopaths. The normal scan on the left is his son's.įallon says nobody in his family has real problems with those behaviors. This is the area that Fallon and other scientists say is involved with ethical behavior, moral decision-making and impulse control. But in some people, there's an imbalance - the orbital cortex isn't doing its job - perhaps because the person had a brain injury or was born that way.įallon's brain (on the right) has dark patches in the orbital cortex, the area just behind the eyes. He's clearly oversimplifying, but Fallon says the orbital cortex puts a brake on another part of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved with aggression and appetites. "People with low activity are either free-wheeling types or sociopaths," he says. This is the orbital cortex, the area that Fallon and other scientists believe is involved with ethical behavior, moral decision-making and impulse control. "Look at that - there's almost nothing here," Fallon says. ![]() Then he points to another section of the brain, in the front part of the brain, just behind the eyes. "Here is a brain that's not normal," he says. To demonstrate, he opened his laptop and called up an image of a brain on his computer screen. Because he has studied the brains of dozens of psychopaths, he knew precisely what to look for. Science PART 3: Can Your Genes Make You Murder?Ī little spooked by his ancestry, Fallon set out to see whether anyone in his family possesses the brain of a serial killer.
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