Last night I cringed while watching Russell Yates� (Andrea Yates� oddly unemotional husband) interview on Larry King Live, who confidently explained how Andrea�s crime was a direct result of imbalanced brain chemistry. As someone who has been studying the biology of behavior and the brain for the past four years it alarms me to hear such assured presumptions on the television. There is no legitimate research that supports what Yates stated, and there is an abundant wealth of research that argues the contrary. Even simple common sense and analysis will tell anyone that imbalanced chemistry is more probable of being the result of the environment and the thoughts and activities of the individual than vice versa.
Psychologist Adrian Raine, the leading researcher of the biology of criminal behavior and schizotypal personality disorder, has been doing research on the brain activity of serial killers and mass murderers for several years. In comparing over 30 serial killers to the brains of �normal� people, Raine found a highly distinctive characteristic among most of the serial killers: an extraordinarily high activity rate in the frontal cortex. Could this be a distinct characteristic of serial killers that may be the one defining factor that separates them from everyone else? Think again. The organized-type class of serial killers is incredibly methodical and calculating, and planning becomes a big part of their mental activity, which happens to occur in the frontal cortex. This would logically explain the difference between them and the normal population. Raine also compared a scan of his own brain, and his looked synonymous to a typical brain of a serial killer. When an interviewer asked him why this was, Raine simply stated something like, �I�m a researcher. I do a lot of methodical planning myself!�
As shown in Raine�s work, studying the brain is no simple obstacle and vulnerable to false assumption. In the case of serial killers, the over activity in their frontal cortex is a likely result of their behavior and what they choose to use their brains for (planning to kill people), more so than their abnormal activity levels being the cause of their behavior. Otherwise, Raine�s freezer should be investigated for human heads. This is one of thousands of examples of the complex analysis neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and psychologists face everyday. Some other examples are the oversized ventricles that are a characterization of schizophrenia, the abnormally small hippocampus of a post-traumatic stress disordered (PTSD) individual, and the low serotonin levels of a manic-depressive. Ask any specialist and they will agree research strongly illustrates an interaction between environment and organism that brings the brain to its disposition. A PTSD individual who has experienced a traumatic event will suffer memory dysfunction and unwanted flashbacks. In effect from the trauma, the development of the hippocampus is severely hindered which damages its memory capability. Low serotonin levels are characteristic of a depressed individual who can self-medicate by eating a meal high in carbohydrates. This is all evidence that shows the environment directly affecting the state of the brain. Heck, even I can dramatically change my brain chemistry if I went out and ate MSG-infested Chinese food all day, but that doesn�t make me accountable-free for my actions. Yet, Yates� defenders claim that Yates� calculated murder scheme was entirely due to her chemical imbalance, leaving her as innocent as her children. They then have the audacity to put on trial the mental health industry for Andrea Yates� crime as if they had taken her kids one by one and drowned them in the bathtub as they struggled for their final breaths of life.
Unscrupulous MDs/PhDs are more than willing to ignore the true complexity of their work for an easy payoff (making thousands of dollars for a few hours work is pretty nice). Hired by defense lawyers like Yates� attorney George Parnham, they sacrifice the truth and testify that murderers are 100% incapable of controlling their violent, impulsive behavior due to the state of their brain, and therefore not responsible for their crimes, a myth that is widely unfounded across the board.
Furthermore, are people really so na�ve as to believe that everyone�s brain chemistry is at equilibrium all the time? I�m willing to bet that the majority of criminals and the rest of the population host an imperfect balance in their brain chemistry due to differences in diet, environment, and the undeniable human volition that has been exemplified through the thousands of studies exhibiting the placebo phenomenon. By effect of our individual differences, we are far from reaching and maintaining �ideal chemical equilibrium.� We are humans, not robots.
If a chemical imbalance were to blame for our criminal acts, it would be justice to release all prisoners into society and allow them to wreak havoc on our lives while we try to create the perfect pill to cure us of our irresponsible and destructive chemical imbalances. Anyone ever read Brave New World?