Violent Minds

What Science Has Learned from Brain Scans

For decades, scientists have wondered what distinguishes the brain of a killer from that of a typical person. Thanks to advances in neuroimaging technology-including PET scans, MRI, fMRI, and DTI-we can now peer inside the living brains of violent offenders and psychopaths to identify structural and functional differences that may predispose individuals to violence. What researchers have discovered is both fascinating and unsettling: the brains of murderers, serial killers, and psychopaths show consistent abnormalities in specific regions responsible for impulse control, emotional regulation, moral reasoning, and empathy. This article examines what brain scans have revealed about the neuroscience of violence.

The Pioneering Research: Adrian Raine’s Groundbreaking Studies

The Landmark 1997 Study

In 1997, neuroscientist Adrian Raine and his colleagues published a landmark study that would transform our understanding of the criminal brain. Using positron emission tomography (PET) scans, Raine examined the brains of 41 murderers pleading not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) compared with 41 age- and sex-matched controls.

The findings were striking. Murderers were characterized by reduced glucose metabolism (indicating decreased activity) in several critical brain regions:

• Prefrontal cortex: The brain’s “guardian angel of behavior”
• Superior parietal gyrus: Involved in spatial processing and attention
• Left angular gyrus: Associated with language and numerical processing
• Corpus callosum: The bridge connecting the brain’s two hemispheres

Additionally, murderers showed abnormal asymmetries (left hemisphere lower than right) in:

• Amygdala: The fear and emotion processing center
• Thalamus: The brain’s sensory relay station
• Medial temporal lobe: Critical for memory and emotional responses

This study provided the first direct evidence of a network of abnormal cortical and subcortical brain processes that may predispose individuals to violence.

Predatory vs. Affective Murderers

In a follow-up study, Raine distinguished between two types of killers:

Affective (impulsive) murderers: Those who kill in the heat of the moment showed excessive subcortical activity but reduced prefrontal activity. Their “emotional brain” was overactive while their “rational brake” (prefrontal cortex) was underactive.

Predatory (premeditated) murderers: Those who plan their kills had sufficiently good prefrontal functioning to regulate aggressive impulses and execute calculated violence.

This distinction revealed that not all murderers have the same brain abnormalities-the pattern depends on whether the killing was impulsive or premeditated.

The Prefrontal Cortex: The Brain’s Moral Compass

Structure and Function

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), particularly the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), acts as the brain’s executive control center. These regions are responsible for:

• Impulse control: Putting brakes on aggressive urges
• Moral decision-making: Evaluating right from wrong
• Emotional regulation: Managing intense feelings
• Planning and forethought: Considering future consequences
• Social cognition: Understanding social norms and others’ perspectives

When these areas malfunction, individuals become “free-wheeling types or sociopaths,” according to neuroscientist James Fallon. The orbital cortex normally puts a brake on the amygdala, which drives aggression and appetites. In some people, there’s an imbalance-the orbital cortex isn’t doing its job, perhaps because of brain injury or being born that way.

Prefrontal Deficits in Violent Offenders

Research consistently demonstrates that violent offenders and psychopaths show structural and functional abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex:

Gray matter reductions: Multiple studies found decreased gray matter volume in the OFC and vmPFC of psychopathic individuals. The most commonly reported subregions showing deficits are vmPFC/OFC and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

Reduced activity: Neuroimaging studies show reduced prefrontal activity during tasks requiring moral reasoning, impulse control, and decision-making. PET scans of serial offenders revealed distinctive patterns of frontal hypoactivation during tasks requiring inhibition.

Diminished connectivity: Psychopaths show reduced functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and limbic regions like the amygdala. This disconnection means emotional information doesn’t properly inform decision-making.

The Most Extensive Study on Homicide Offenders

A 2019 study representing the largest neuroimaging investigation to date examined structural MRI data from 808 incarcerated male adults, categorized into three groups: 203 homicide offenders, 475 violent but non-homicidal offenders, and 130 minimally violent offenders.

The results were striking: homicide offenders showed robust deficits in gray matter volume in multiple regions compared to other criminals:

• Ventromedial/orbitofrontal cortex
• Anterior temporal cortex
• Ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
• Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex
• Insula
• Cerebellum
• Dorsal anterior cingulate
• Mid-cingulate
• Posterior cingulate cortex extending into precuneus

Remarkably, there was little difference between the violent but non-homicidal subjects and minimally violent subjects. This suggests significant gray matter reductions in several brain areas particularly distinguish homicide offenders from other kinds of criminals, including other violent offenders.

“The orbital frontal cortex and anterior temporal lobes showed the largest effect sizes; that is, men who committed homicide had less gray matter in these regions than other violent or nonviolent offenders,” explained lead researcher Kent Kiehl.

The Amygdala: Fear, Emotion, and Aggression

The Role of the Amygdala

The amygdala serves as the brain’s alarm system, processing fear, threat detection, and emotional responses. It plays a crucial role in the affective evaluation of sensory input and the neurobiological mediation of aggressive behavior.

Abnormalities in Violent Offenders

Brain scans consistently reveal amygdala dysfunction in violent offenders and psychopaths:

Reduced connectivity: Criminal psychopaths show decreased connectivity between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. This disconnection is critical: when processing negative stimuli in the amygdala doesn’t translate into strongly felt negative emotions, it may explain why psychopaths don’t feel guilty about their actions or sad when their victims suffer.

Asymmetrical activation: Murderers’ brains showed decreased amygdala activation in the left hemisphere and increased activation in the right hemisphere. This asymmetry appears in both psychopathic and non-psychopathic murderers.

Smaller size: Some studies found psychopaths have a smaller and less active amygdala, explaining their lack of fear, emotional detachment, and inability to empathize with others.

Larger size in some offenders: Interestingly, one study found violent offenders had larger gray matter volumes in the amygdala bilaterally compared to nonoffenders. This apparent contradiction may reflect different subtypes of violent offenders or the influence of comorbid conditions.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Violence

The connection between amygdala abnormalities and violence is further supported by research on temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). A significant subgroup of patients (20%) with TLE and aggressive behavior had severe amygdala atrophy in the context of a history of encephalitis. Another subgroup (28%) had different left temporal lesions affecting either the amygdala or periamygdaloid structures.

High risk of aggressive behavior in epilepsy has been found to be frequently related to left temporal lobe epilepsy, intractable epilepsy, low IQ, early onset of seizures, and primary epileptic focus located in the dominant hemisphere.

The Striatum: Reward, Impulsivity, and Sensation-Seeking

The Reward Processing Center

The striatum-a subcortical region of the forebrain-is involved in cognitive processing of reward-related information and motivational aspects of behavior. It plays a crucial role in stimulus-reinforcement learning, novelty-seeking, and impulsivity.

Enlarged Striatum in Psychopaths

One of the most consistent recent findings is that psychopaths have a significantly larger striatum than non-psychopaths:

• Psychopaths show approximately 10% larger striatum on average
• Increased striatal volumes were specifically associated with greater psychopathic traits
• The relationship was mediated by stimulation-seeking and impulsivity
• Violent offenders showed larger gray matter volumes in the left nucleus accumbens, bilateral amygdala, and right caudate head

Why This Matters

The enlarged striatum helps explain several hallmark features of psychopathy:

Extreme reward-seeking: “We have always known that psychopaths go to extreme lengths to seek out rewards, including criminal activities that involve property, sex, and drugs,” explains Adrian Raine. “We are now finding out a neurobiological underpinning of this impulsive and stimulating behavior in the form of enlargement to the striatum, a key brain area involved in rewards”.

Impaired stimulus-reinforcement learning: The striatum is densely connected to the amygdala and vmPFC, which are necessary for learning from rewards and punishments. Psychopaths repeatedly fail to learn from punishment when rewards are also available.

Preference for immediate rewards: Striatal activity is associated with impulsivity, indicated by preference for immediate over delayed rewards. Psychopaths demonstrate deficits in delaying gratification.

Motivation for criminal behavior: Approximately 45% of psychopaths are motivated by material gain in their crimes. The heightened reward sensitivity driven by striatal abnormalities provides neurobiological motivation for criminal acts.

The Insula: Empathy and Emotional Processing

The Insula’s Role

The insula is instrumental in detecting and interpreting internal bodily states and is part of an interconnected subcortical network involved in empathic behavior. It’s involved in emotional processing, pain perception, and making judgments about emotions.

Reduced Insula Volume in Psychopaths

Research consistently shows reduced gray matter volume in the insula of psychopathic individuals:

• Bilateral gray matter reductions in mid-anterior insula of individuals high on psychopathy scores
• Left insula was the area of greatest difference between psychopath and non-psychopath prison inmates, with psychopaths displaying significant insula cortical thinning
• Violent offenders showed smaller gray matter volumes in the left insula
• Psychopaths showed around 1.45% less total brain volume, especially in cortex and insular cortex

Functional Consequences

Insula dysfunction in psychopaths manifests as:

• Hypoactivity during classical fear conditioning compared to healthy subjects
• Impaired detection of certain internal bodily states
• Deficits in empathic behavior and emotional processing
• Reduced augmentation of conditioned stimulus representation
• Weaker behavioral control by emotional stimuli

Recent studies suggest the insula may be a marker of psychopathy. The reduced insula function helps explain why psychopaths don’t experience normal empathic responses to others’ distress.

The Corpus Callosum: Interhemispheric Communication

Structure and Function

The corpus callosum is the largest white matter structure in the brain, containing approximately 200-250 million axonal projections that connect the two cerebral hemispheres. It enables interhemispheric communication and integration of information.

Abnormalities in Psychopaths

Surprisingly, research reveals larger corpus callosum structures in psychopathic antisocial individuals:

• Psychopathic antisocial individuals had a 22.6% increase in the volume of the corpus callosum and corona radiata compared to controls
• Callosi were 15.3% thinner and 6.9% longer in psychopathic individuals
• Larger callosal volumes were associated with affective and interpersonal deficits, low autonomic stress reactivity, and low spatial ability

Reduced Function Despite Larger Size

Although the corpus callosum is larger, it shows functional abnormalities:

• Murderers showed reduced glucose metabolism in the corpus callosum
• Increased nonspecific white matter abnormalities
• Abnormal interhemispheric transfer in psychopathic individuals
• Increased interhemispheric coherence

These corpus callosum abnormalities may reflect atypical neurodevelopmental processes involving an arrest of early axonal pruning or increased white matter myelination. Similar patterns appear in other neurodevelopmental disorders including schizophrenia, dyslexia, and developmental language disorder.

White Matter Abnormalities: Disrupted Brain Connectivity

The Importance of White Matter

White matter consists of myelinated axons that form the brain’s communication highways, connecting different brain regions. Damage to specific white matter tracts can profoundly impact behavior.

The Right Uncinate Fasciculus

A 2025 study published in Molecular Psychiatry identified a specific white matter tract strongly associated with criminal behavior: the right uncinate fasciculus.

This tract connects areas involved in emotion and social behavior. Key findings:

• 71% of lesions in the criminality group intersected the right uncinate fasciculus, compared to only 14% in controls
• When focusing only on violent crimes, the association was even stronger
• The right lateralization adds to growing literature on the right hemisphere’s role in social cognition

Other implicated white matter tracts included the forceps minor, parts of the cingulum, and corticostriatal tracts-pathways connecting frontal lobe regions with limbic and subcortical structures important for decision-making, impulse control, and emotional regulation.

“If an individual has a new brain injury to specific brain pathways, especially to the right uncinate fasciculus, and has new onset criminal behavior, there is an increased likelihood that the injury plays a causal role in the behavior,” the researchers concluded.

Widespread White Matter Differences

Studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) reveal extensive white matter abnormalities in violent offenders:

• Violent offenders had larger white matter volumes in occipital and parietal lobes and left cerebellum
• Differences were even greater in offenders diagnosed with psychopathy
• Conduct disorder in females is associated with reduced corpus callosum white matter
• Predatory and non-violent offenders showed significant changes in white matter diffusion

The Case of James Fallon: The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He’s a Psychopath

An Accidental Discovery

One of the most fascinating stories in neurocriminology involves James Fallon, a neuroscientist at UC Irvine who spent nearly 20 years studying the brains of psychopaths and serial killers.

In October 2005, while analyzing brain scans as part of an Alzheimer’s study involving his family members, Fallon noticed something disturbing. Most of the family scans looked normal, but one showed the telltale pattern he’d seen in dozens of psychopathic killers: inactive orbital cortex, the region that puts brakes on the amygdala’s aggressive impulses.

“Look at that-there’s almost nothing here,” Fallon said, pointing to the orbital cortex area just behind the eyes. “If you look at the PET scan, I look just like one of those killers”.

The scan was his own.

What Makes Someone a “Successful Psychopath”?

Fallon’s discovery raised profound questions. He had the brain of a psychopath and learned he descended from a long line of violent individuals, including seven alleged murderers. Yet he was a successful professor, married with children, with no criminal history.

His case demonstrates that brain abnormalities alone don’t determine behavior. Fallon attributes his non-criminal trajectory to a loving, stable childhood-suggesting that environment can moderate biological predispositions.

“The evidence is accumulating that some people’s brains predispose them toward violence and that psychopathic tendencies may be passed down from one generation to another,” Fallon cautioned, while emphasizing this is a young field still being explored.

Lessons from Murderers’ Brain Scans

Seven Key Findings

Daniel Amen, who has conducted tens of thousands of brain scans, identified seven critical lessons from examining murderers’ brains:

1. Murder doesn’t always look the same in the brain: There’s no singular pattern. Different types of murderers show different brain abnormalities.

2. Brains of murderers typically don’t look healthy: Brain SPECT imaging shows abnormal activity in various brain regions, especially the prefrontal cortex involved with empathy, judgment, and forethought.

3. Some murderers have brain injuries: Head trauma, particularly to the frontal lobes, appears frequently in violent offenders’ histories.

4. Some murderers have toxic brains: Exposure to toxins, substance abuse, and other environmental factors can damage brain function.

5. Multiple factors typically combine: It’s rarely just one thing-usually a combination of genetic vulnerabilities, brain injuries, environmental factors, and psychological trauma.

6. Brain patterns can predict treatment response: Brain imaging may help identify which interventions will work for which individuals.

7. Early intervention matters: Identifying and treating brain abnormalities early may prevent violent trajectories.

The Ethical Implications

Can Brain Scans Predict Violence?

The research raises profound ethical questions. Kent Kiehl, lead researcher on the massive homicide offender study, stated: “Yes, this is a first step towards using neuroscience to help predict who will commit homicidal behavior and identifying neuro-risk factors for homicidal behavior”.

But he’s also careful to note: “It should not be mistaken for the ability to identify individual homicide offenders using brain data alone, nor should this work be interpreted as predicting future homicidal behavior”.

The prospect of identifying a “homicidal brain fingerprint” raises uncomfortable questions:

• Could brain scans become evidence in murder trials?
• What do we do with knowledge that certain brain patterns indicate propensity for violence?
• Does this imply biological determinism?
• Should we conduct preventive brain scans on high-risk youth?

Brain Scans in the Courtroom

Brain imaging evidence has already begun appearing in criminal trials. In 2010, testimony on a convicted murderer’s brain activity may have saved him from the death penalty when a Miami jury rejected the death sentence after hearing neuroimaging evidence.

This raises complex questions about free will, moral responsibility, and punishment. As Adrian Raine asks: Is it ethical to punish prisoners if the neural circuitry underlying their morality is compromised?

The Case of the Tumor and the Pedophile

Raine presented the case of “Michael,” a man who developed predatory pedophilia when a tumor grew in his prefrontal cortex. When neurosurgeons removed the tumor, he returned to normal. Six months later, the tumor regrew and he again displayed pedophilic behavior. After the second removal, he again returned to normal, losing his “acquired pedophilia”.

This case dramatically demonstrates how brain abnormalities can directly cause behavioral changes. But it also raises the question: If someone’s criminal behavior is caused by brain dysfunction they didn’t choose, what does that mean for culpability?

Limitations and Cautions

Brain Imaging Isn’t Destiny

Several critical caveats must accompany this research:

Correlation, not causation: Brain abnormalities are associated with violence, but don’t necessarily cause it. Many people with similar brain patterns never become violent.

Overlapping populations: Many of these studies include comorbid conditions (mental illness, substance abuse, head injuries) that make it difficult to isolate which factors contribute to violence.

Heterogeneity: Not all violent offenders show the same patterns. “Murder doesn’t always look the same in the brain,” as Daniel Amen emphasizes.

Environmental factors: Brain structure and function are influenced by environment, trauma, substance abuse, and other factors. Nature and nurture interact in complex ways.

Developmental considerations: The brain continues developing into the mid-20s, with the prefrontal cortex being the last region to mature. This is especially relevant for understanding juvenile offenders.

Individual variation: James Fallon demonstrates that having a “psychopathic brain” doesn’t guarantee criminal behavior. Protective factors like loving families and stable environments matter enormously.

The Future: Prevention and Treatment

Early Intervention

Understanding the neurobiological basis of violence opens possibilities for prevention and early intervention:

• Identifying at-risk youth through brain imaging combined with behavioral assessments
• Developing targeted interventions for specific brain abnormalities
• Treating underlying neurological conditions (tumors, epilepsy, etc.)
• Addressing modifiable risk factors (head injuries, substance abuse, environmental toxins)

Neurobiological Treatments

Brain-based findings suggest potential treatment approaches:

• Neurofeedback training to enhance prefrontal cortex function
• Medications targeting specific neurotransmitter systems
• Neurosurgical interventions for structural abnormalities
• Cognitive training to strengthen executive functions

Adrian Raine suggested a public health crime prevention program where brain abnormalities could be identified and behaviors changed at young ages before they develop into violent trajectories.

Conclusion: A More Complete Picture

Brain imaging has revolutionized our understanding of violent behavior. The evidence is clear and consistent: the brains of murderers, serial killers, and psychopaths show measurable structural and functional differences from typical brains.

The most robust findings include:

• Prefrontal cortex dysfunction: Reduced volume and activity in regions controlling impulse, emotion, and moral reasoning
• Amygdala abnormalities: Altered size, activity, and connectivity affecting fear and emotion processing
• Enlarged striatum in psychopaths: Underlying reward-seeking, impulsivity, and stimulus-reinforcement deficits
• Reduced insula: Impairing empathy and emotional processing
• Corpus callosum abnormalities: Affecting interhemispheric communication
• White matter disruptions: Particularly in tracts connecting emotional and control regions

These findings don’t excuse violence or eliminate personal responsibility, but they do provide a more complete picture of what creates a killer. The brain abnormalities represent risk factors that, combined with environmental triggers, childhood trauma, and other variables, can push someone toward violence.

Most importantly, this research offers hope. If we understand the neurobiological underpinnings of violence, we can develop better prevention strategies, more effective treatments, and more nuanced approaches to criminal justice that account for brain dysfunction while still protecting society.

The question is no longer whether brain differences exist in violent offenders-the scans clearly show they do. The question now is what we choose to do with that knowledge.

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