Reduced prefrontal and increased subcortical brain functioning assessed using positron emission tomography in predatory and affective murderers
✍ Scribed by Adrian Raine; J. Reid Meloy; Susan Bihrle; Jackie Stoddard; Lori Lacasse; Monte S. Buchsbaum
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 277 KB
- Volume
- 16
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0735-3936
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
There appear to be no brain imaging studies investigating which brain mechanisms subserve aective, impulsive violence versus planned, predatory violence. It was hypothesized that aectively violent oenders would have lower prefrontal activity, higher subcortical activity, and reduced prefrontal/subcortical ratios relative to controls, while predatory violent oenders would show relatively normal brain functioning. Glucose metabolism was assessed using positron emission tomography in 41 comparisons, 15 predatory murderers, and nine aective murderers in left and right hemisphere prefrontal (medial and lateral) and subcortical (amygdala, midbrain, hippocampus, and thalamus) regions. Aective murderers relative to comparisons had lower left and right prefrontal functioning, higher right hemisphere subcortical functioning, and lower right hemisphere prefrontal/subcortical ratios. In contrast, predatory murderers had prefrontal functioning that was more equivalent to comparisons, while also having excessively high right subcortical activity. Results support the hypothesis that emotional, unplanned impulsive murderers are less able to regulate and control aggressive impulses generated from subcortical structures due to de®cient prefrontal regulation. It is hypothesized that excessive subcortical activity predisposes to aggressive behaviour, but that while