VIOLENCE
AND THE
BRAIN Summary
Charlotte Huijzers
,Content
Lecture 1: introductory lecture....................................................................................................................... 2
Article Fairchild.....................................................................................................................................................5
Article de Brito......................................................................................................................................................6
Introduction of the book.......................................................................................................................................6
The anatomy of violence Chapter 1......................................................................................................................6
The anatomy of violence Chapter 3......................................................................................................................8
The anatomy of violence Chapter 5......................................................................................................................8
Lecture 2: neuro-bio-psychosocial jigsaw........................................................................................................ 9
The anatomy of violence Chapter 4....................................................................................................................14
The anatomy of violence Chapter 6....................................................................................................................17
The anatomy of violence Chapter 8....................................................................................................................17
Lecture 3: forensic treatments and the influence on criminal behavior of adolescents...................................19
The anatomy of violence Chapter 9....................................................................................................................22
Lecture 4: juvenile delinquency.................................................................................................................... 23
The anatomy of violence Chapter 10..................................................................................................................28
The anatomy of violence Chapter 11..................................................................................................................29
Lecture 5: empathy, violence and endocrinology..........................................................................................29
Lecture 6: suicide prevention....................................................................................................................... 39
Article O’Connor & Kirtley..................................................................................................................................43
Article Turecki.....................................................................................................................................................43
,Lecture 1: introductory lecture
Program lecture
Introduction
Abnormal behavior: what is it?
Conduct disorder
Psychopathy
o Conduct disorder and psychopathy: key in understanding severe (and
chronic!) antisocial behavior
o They are the strongest predictors
Introduction
The juvenile antisocial brain, PhD – Moji
The youngsters rather wanted to be out of the juvenile for a day, to participate
in research of Moji.
But the ones that could go home at the end of the day, got a reward: money.
But getting picked up by a Mercedes worked too.
Are dangerous people born or made?
We don’t know it
In most cases, it must be a combination
o Need negative contextual factors to trigger genes
Most biological = dangerous group, difficult to treat them
Abnormal behavior: what is it?
Normal behavior
So, what is normal or typical behavior?
When does it become antisocial or abnormal behavior?
o Not a simple thing
Abnormal behavior: 3 lines/different ways of what is normal or abnormal
o Social, ethical, laws, daily life, surroundings
3 cases of individuals and most relevant personal characteristics, what they’ve done
and what is normal and abnormal. 3 boys, participated in studies.
Case 1: Cut of tail of family cat
o Proud of serial amputations, interested in cat’s reactions
Case 2: Pushed toddler into swimming pool
o Watched toddler drown, interested in seeing someone drown, not afraid of
punishment, liked the attention
Case 3: used excessive violence during assault
o Was apparently provoked by victim, not troubled by incarceration, no feelings of
remorse or regret, his perspective: he simply reacted to the situation
o More complex case
Abnormal behavior is not category, it’s spectral/dimension!
Different criteria abnormal/atypical/antisocial
Cultural/social/ethical
Statistical model
Medical model
DSM-5
, Descriptive, doesn’t say anything about underlying causes, treatment and
ignores comorbidity (= having multiple psychiatric disorders at a time)
Conduct disorder (CD) - externalizing
Only used when age <18/19 years
Symptoms:
o Aggression to people and animals
- Physical cruelty to people and animals
- Forced someone in sexual intimacy
o Destruction of property
o Deceitfulness or theft
o Serious violations of rules
- They don’t believe in rules if they’re not their own rules
o The disturbance in behavior causes clinically significant impairment in
social, academic, or occupational functioning
o If the individual is 18 or older, criteria are not met for antisocial personality
disorder
Limited prosocial emotions (was psychopathic tendencies, but is the same)
o Lack of guilt
o Lack of empathy
o Unconcerned about performance
o Shallow or deficient affect
Symptoms must be persistent
Most often showcases itself around the age of 7-8, symptoms become more
severe/excessive
Most adolescents grow out of this disorder by aging/developing
More persistent is the group that still show the symptoms >18/19 years
Why is it relevant?
Prevalence around 7%
High referral rates
Societal/economic/emotional burden
Precursor/predictor to adult psychopathology
o Antisocial personality disorder, substance abuse, anxiety etc.
Highly chronic & persistent in a substant of youngsters
Notoriously difficult to treat
o We do not have a scientifical proven treatment
Core symptoms:
Aggression/intimidation
Destruction/vandalism
Lying/stealing
Breaking rules
More males than females
Psychopathy
Disorder in personality, collection of abnormal personality traits
Replaced: antisocial personality disorder (85% overlap with psychopathy)
Inability to treat them, can’t change personality