Exploring Serial Killers

Jim Fallon’s “Exploring the Mind of a Killer”
Neuroscientist and University of California professor Jim Fallon’s Ted Talk discusses how the interaction of genes, brain damage, and environment contribute to the development of psychopathic killers. Through a serious of blind experiments, Fallon compared EEGS, PET scans and genetic analysis between 70 subjects. The result of his research is very interesting. Fallon and his team found that there is a very specific time period in which brain damage occurs that causes psychopathic traits to be developed. He found that all of the killers he researched had experienced brain damage in their orbital cortex and the interior section of the temporal lobe. I was interested to learn that humans have a

The combination of the MAO-O gene and development in a violent environment is a dangerous mixture. Fallon explains that populations that grow up and reproduce in these environments are the people most likely to produce psychopathic serial killers. I personally tend to gravitate towards an environmental and experience explanation of criminal personalities. While I certainly do not discount the impact that genes and brain chemical imbalances play, I believe that a child’s experiences are a critical indicator of their future choices. For example, of those suffering with dissociative identity disorder almost all experienced extreme sexual trauma as a child. In fact, many of the mental disorders associated with serial killers are also associated with trauma at an early stage in development. Fallon clarifies that early on in prepubescent development one would have to be involved in extreme violence in 3D because of the mirror neuron system. This leads into a discussion of nature vs. nurture. It is widely accepted that a complex combination of the two is what causes disordered