brain injury

•   frontal lobe controls motor control, problem solving and speech production
• parietal lobe controls touch perception and body orientation
• occipital lobe controld sight recepetion and interpretation
• temporal lobe controls auditoray processing, language comprehension and memory
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• phineaus gage was a railword worker who was struck with an iron bar through the head, his personality changed drastically
• pther than scarring, vision loss and epilepsy he had no memory loss, he chnaged from poliye and respectable to profane and violent
• phineaus gage damaged part of his prefrontal cortex, this area is assosciated with executive decision making, behavioural control and higher thinking processes, many studies into psychopathy and violent criminal behaviour imply dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex, damaged PFC can cause increased aggression
• charles whitman killed his mother, wife and 14 students at texas university from the clocktower, he had been pleading that something was wrong with him for months but had been dismissed by the hospital on multiple occasions, when he died it was discovered he had a tumor pressing on his amygdala which was the cause of his violent behaviour
• whitman also had an extremely strict father
• amygdala regulates emotions, fear and agression
• andrew raine (1997)?

  studied brains of serial killers on death row in USA who were diagnosed by 'not guilty by reason of insanity'
• brains of murderers have less activity in the prefrontal cortex and frontal lobe, this is associated with rational thinking, decision making and self restraint
• murderers have less activity in the parietal lobe which is associated with abstract thinking such as morality or justice
• murderers have imbalance of activity on the amygdala (limbic system) which is associated with emotional regulation and aggression
• warrior gene is monoamine oxidase, this is an enzyme that breaks down important neurotransmitters in the brain including dopamine and serotonin, one variant is assosciated with high anger and the other low, low serotonin levels have been linked to increased anger