Joy, Guilt, Anger, Love (38 page)

19
. Raine, A., Meloy, J. R., Bihrle, S., Stoddard, J., LaCasse, L., and Buchsbaum, M. S., ‘Reduced prefrontal and increased subcortical brain functioning assessed using positron emission tomography in predatory and affective murderers’,
Behavioural Sciences and the Law
, 16 (1998), 319–32; Raine, A., Buchsbaum, M., and LaCasse, L., ‘Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography’,
Biological Psychiatry
, 42 (1997), 495–508.

20
. Davidson, R. J., Putnam, K. M., and Larson, C. L., ‘Dysfunction in the neural circuitry of emotion regulation – a possible prelude to violence’,
Science
, 289 (2000), 591–4.

21
. An experiment conducted in 1999 by Dr Shiva and his colleagues elegantly demonstrated the battle between emotions and reason as controlled by the PFC by showing how the PFC can manage only a few cognitive tasks at a time. Participants were asked to use their short-term memory to remember a number and then were asked to choose between a bowl of fruit salad and a chocolate cake. Those who memorized a seven-digit number were unable to resist the temptation of choosing chocolate cake over the fruit salad. On the contrary, participants who only had to memorize a one-digit number were able to use their PFC to exercise will power and opt for the healthy food. With a lower cognitive load, you can have more will power and resist temptations. The PFC also plays a role in working memory, which is about storing information for further use and manipulation. I discuss this in chapter 6.

22
. Brunner, H. G.,
et al.
, ‘X-linked borderline mental retardation with prominent behavioural disturbance: Phenotype, genetic localization, and evidence for disturbed monoamine metabolism’,
American Journal of Human Genetics
, 52 (1993), 1032–9.

23
. Brunner, H. G.,
et al.
, ‘Abnormal behaviour associated with a point mutation in the structural gene for monoamine oxidase A’,
Science
, 262 (1993), 578–80.

24
. The reason these men did not produce MAOA is that they had a mutation in the MAOA gene on the X chromosome that resulted in a premature halt in the production of the enzyme.

25
. Sabol, S.,
et al.
, ‘A functional polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A gene promoter’,
Human Genetics
, 103 (1998), 273–9.

26
. Cases, O., Seif, I., Grimsby, J.,
et al.
, ‘Aggressive behavior and altered amounts of brain serotonin and norepinephrine in mice lacking MAOA’,
Science
, 268 (1995), 1763–6. You may have noticed some gender bias here, in that I have only mentioned MAOA-related violent behaviour in men. It isn’t that women aren’t aggressive or can’t feel rage or that they don’t commit crimes. Since the MAOA gene lies in the X chromosome, it is only from his mother that a man can inherit the low-producing version of the gene. And whereas in his sister (who as a female inherits an X chromosome from each parent) the low-producing form of the gene in their mother’s X chromosome can be compensated for by a high-producing copy of the gene in the X chromosome coming from her dad, in the man’s case the paternal Y chromosome can’t help. That is why behavioural alterations due to defects in the MAOA gene are more evident in males than in females. Of course, any other gene playing a role in violence will have a greater effect in men than in women if it is also X-linked.

27
. Rose, S., and Rose, H.,
Alas Poor Darwin: Arguments against Evolutionary Psychology
, Random House, 2000.

28
. By way of clarification, it should be said that, in the case of the Dutch kindred, the mutation in the sequence MAOA gene was such that no enzyme could be produced. In such cases the mutation had a direct effect on the onset of criminality, but the long or short variation of MAOA alone is not a sufficient cause for criminality.

29
. Rakersting, A., Kroker, K., Horstmann, J.,
et al.
, ‘Association of MAO-A variant with complicated grief in major depression’,
Neuropsychobiology
, 56 (2008), 191–6; Frydman, C., Camerer, C., Bossaerts, P., and Rangel, A., ‘MAOA-L carriers are better at making optimal financial decisions under risk’,
Proceedings of the Royal Society
, 278 (2010), 2053–9.

30
. Caspi, A.,
et al.
, ‘Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children’,
Science
, 297 (2002), 851–4.

31
. Frazzetto, G.,
et al.
, ‘Early trauma and increased risk for physical aggression during adulthood: The moderating role of MAOA genotype’,
PLOS One
, 5, Issue 2 (2007), e486; Widom, C. S., and Brzustowicz, L. M., ‘MAOA and the “cycle of violence”: Childhood abuse and neglect, MAOA genotype, and risk for violent and antisocial behaviour’,
Biological Psychiatry
, 60 (2006), 684–9; Kim-Cohen, J.,
et al.
, ‘MAOA, maltreatment, and gene–environment interaction predicting children’s mental health: New evidence and a meta-analysis’,
Molecular Psychiatry
, 11 (2006), 903–13.

32
. Gautam, N., ‘What’s on Jim Fallon’s Mind?’,
Wall Street Journal
, 30 November 2009. You can also hear Dr Jim Fallon talk about his story in his own TED Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2V0vOFexY4

33
. It has been found that the low-activity variant of MAOA predicted volume reduction in limbic areas, hyper-responsive amygdalas and diminished reactivity in regulatory prefrontal regions: Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Buckholtz, J. W., Kolachana, B.,
et al.
, ‘Neural mechanisms of genetic risk for impulsivity and violence in humans’,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 103 (2006), 6269–74.

34
. Feresin, E., ‘Lighter sentence for murderer with “bad genes” ’,
Nature
, 30 October 2009.

35
. Ibid.

36
. For an informative summary of the use of neuroscience evidence in UK courts, see ‘Brain Waves 4: Neuroscience and the law’, a report published by the Royal Society, London, December 2011.

37
. Aspinwall, L. G., Brown, T. R., and Tabery, J., ‘The double-edged sword: Does biomechanism increase or decrease judges’ sentencing of psychopaths?’,
Science
, 337 (2012), 846–9.

38
. Eagleman, D.,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
, Pantheon Books, 2011.

39
. Gopnik, Adam, ‘One more massacre’,
New Yorker
, 20 July 2012.

40
. Associated Press, 31 August 2012.

41
. Barron, J., ‘Nation reels after gunman massacres 20 children at school in Connecticut’,
New York Times
, 14 December 2012.

42
. Hagan, C., ‘Geneticists studying Connecticut shooter’s DNA’, CNN online, 28 December 2012.

43
. In 2002 President George W. Bush launched the new Freedom Commission on Mental Health to monitor the delivery system of the US mental health service. The plan included mental health screening for the fifty-two million students and six million teachers at educational institutions and appropriate treatment intervention, including drug treatments. Later the plan was dismissed because of conflicts of interest among the politicians who proposed it: they were board members of many of the pharmaceutical companies which would have founded the programme; Lenzer, J., ‘Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness’,
British Medical Journal
, 328 (2004), 1458.

44
. For a critical appraisal of the study of dangerous brains, see Schleim, S., ‘Brains in context in the neurolaw debate: The examples of free will and “dangerous” brains’,
International Journal for Law and Psychiatry
, 35 (2012), 104–11.

45
. ‘Who calls the shots?’, editorial in
Nature
after the massacre by James Holmes in Aurora, Colorado, USA,
Nature
, 488 (2012), 129.

46
. Widdicombe, Lizzie, ‘Shots’,
New Yorker
, 3 September 2012.

47
. Chang, P. P., Ford, D. E., Meoni, L. A.,
et al.
, ‘Anger in young men and subsequent premature cardiovascular disease’,
Archives of Internal Medicine
, 162 (2002), 901–6.

48
. Tafrate, R. C., Kassinove, H., and Dundin, L., ‘Anger episodes in high- and low-trait anger community adults’,
Journal of Clinical Psychology
, 58 (2002), 1573–90.

49
. Eagleman,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
.

50
. Seneca citations are taken from: John M. Cooper and J. F. Procopé (eds), ‘On Anger’, in
Seneca: Moral and Political Essays
, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

51
. Rose, S.,
Lifelines: Life Beyond the Gene
, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Chapter 2

1
. Freud, S.,
The Interpretation of Dreams
(originally published by Macmillan Company, 1913), Forgotten Books, 2012.

2
. Ibid. p. 88.

3
. Ibid. pp. 80–1.

4
. Darwin, C.,
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
(originally published 1872), in Wilson, E. O. (ed.),
From So Simple a Beginning: The Four Great Books of Charles Darwin
, Norton, 2006, p. 1415.

5
. This scenario is studied in Zeelenberg, M., and Breugelmans, S. M., ‘The role of interpersonal harm in distinguishing regret from guilt’,
Emotion
, 8 (2008), 589–96.

6
. For an in-depth psychological analysis of guilt and shame, see Tangney, June Price, and Dearing, Ronda L.,
Shame and Guilt
, Guilford Press, 2000.

7
. However, this distinction is not without exceptions. Often, moral transgressions that cause guilt may not escape the notice of others. If you commit a crime, people you know are going to find out and your name will most probably end up in some newspaper. On the other hand, shame can be solitary. We can be ashamed about something and yet keep doing it secretly; Tangney and Dearing,
Shame and Guilt
.

8
. Blushing is also a sign of embarrassment. Embarrassment is similar to shame and guilt in that it is an emotion that concerns the self. However, in contrast, it is fleeting and is also less serious or morally problematic. It is a relatively superficial feeling that arises from, say, an accident for which we feel responsible, but that has no long-lasting consequences and that does not devalue our whole persona. Eisenberg, N., ‘Emotion, regulation and moral development’,
Annual Review of Psychology
, 51 (2000), 665–97.

9
. For a discussion of visceral and moral disgust, see Jones, D., ‘The depths of disgust’,
Nature
, 447 (2007), 768–71.

10
. Moll, J.,
et al.
, ‘Human fronto-mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation’,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 103 (2006), 15623–8.