BY NIGEL HAWKES SCIENCE EDITOR (for educational purposes etc etc)

ANTISOCIAL people have brains that are subtly different from those of normal people, a new study has shown.

The prefrontal lobe of the brain, which is involved in the sense of guilt and the development of conscience, was found to be 11 per cent smaller than normal in a group of antisocial men examined by a team at the University of Southern California.

This is the first time such a difference has been found in antisocial men and suggests that their problems in relating to others may be inborn, rather than caused by a disturbed upbringing or bad parenting.

Professor Adrian Raine who reports the results in Archives of General Psychiatry, says that the prefrontal cortex is important in the kind of learning mediated by fear, including the fear of social criticism. This could explain why those with a smaller prefrontal cortex feel little guilt or responsibility for their actions.

Two earlier studies have indicated the importance of the same region of the brain. Professor Raine found that in a group of 41 murderers, three quarters had prefrontal cortex damage, while Dr Antonio Damasio, of the University of Iowa, found that two young people with brain damage in the same region showed antisocial symptoms.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), March 06, 2000

Answers

This probably explains LL's behavior, she's brain damaged.

-- good one (goodonee@goodonee.xcom), March 06, 2000.

What I've Learned

I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I've learned that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I've learned that you can keep going long after you can't.

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I've learned that eiher you control your attitude or it controls you.

I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.

I've learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I've learned that money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I've learned that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I've learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

I've learned that maturity has more to do with what types of experience you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I've learned that you family won't always be there for you. It may seem funny, but people you aren't related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people again. Families aren't biological.

I've learned that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken...the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I've learned that our background and circumstances may have influence who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I've learned that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other...And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

I've learned that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I've learned that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

I've learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I've learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.

I've learned that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cires out to you, you will find the strength to help.

I've learned that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I've learned that the people you care most about most in life are taken from you too soon.

-- tc (tc@webtv.net), March 06, 2000.

You've stirred several questions in my mind on this one, Kritter. 1) Do you think we'll ever have this test done as a part of our normal physical checkup? It could go right under Height and Weight on our charts. 2) Where could one go NOW to have this test performed? 3) Will it be possible to have measurements done on pre- teens with follow-up comparisons during the teen years and AFTER the teen years? 4) How might they have determined that the cause may be nature versus nurture? Is size of the prefrontal cortex established at birth? 5) Could we "grow" our prefrontal lobe by eating more "brain food" like fish? [grin]

-- Anita (notgiving@anymore.thingee), March 06, 2000.

I don't know, Anita, good questions. Can't they look at the size of things in your brain now, with those MRIs and CATs? The day after you're born they could tell your parents if you're going to be psychopathic or artistic or a homosexual or highly intelligent? Maybe it's best not to know. (Could it be used in a trial? It wasn't me, your honor..It was my brain)

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), March 06, 2000.

Kritter and Anita, so that's the marker for politicians!

-- Ma Kettle (mom@home.com), March 06, 2000.

Sounds like they've been studying this forum.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), March 06, 2000.

question: Why has anti-social behavior increased in the general population in recent years? Shrunken pre-frontal lobes?

I wonder if these lobes are decreased due to lack of use, rather than inbred (!! -sorry couldn't resist). Studies would have to be performed on babies to be conclusive, I would think.

mayBE it's the chemtrail poisoning -- yah that's the ticket :-)

-- (doomerstomper@usa.net), March 06, 2000.

Simple: the fear factor has been removed from our collective fishtank.

Water really does take the easiest course, and the quest for the perfect human conscience has driven our 'norms' to regress, specifically the 10,000K yr/old measurements for accountability, in search of the higher consciousness, which only exists in sprout- eaters, which comprise a rather slim sector of humanity.

Nifty-schmifty (liberal) conscience-ordering schemes work fine in monocultural, small geo-political structures: not here in the melting pot.

When this attempt at Utopia crashes (as it has), never are the underlying causes of failure honestly analyzed.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), March 06, 2000.

Wasn't there some speculation recently about Einstein's genius being due to the part of his brain that controls making sure you're wearing matching socks being missing, allowing the part that understands gravity to become abnormally large? Or something like that?

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), March 06, 2000.

To be fair, Flint, Einstein was very remiss (anti-social?) as to his familial and domestic duties in favor of his academic/research pursuits.

Genius then, but he'd be reported to the DHS today.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), March 06, 2000.

So let me see now, a guy with mismatched socks has a really BIG genius?

-- Ma Kettle (mom@home.com), March 06, 2000.

THS DMRS hv DFCTVWI BRNS!!! THejq thnk THEY shld be RSPPNSIBL FR THEmRSELFS! THY DNT trst the GVMNT!^ WE No th GVNMNTH WIL TAK CAR us!!! DNT PANCYK!@!! DANT FIL UP Yur gs tak!@ DON"T by GLD!@ ND DONT Tk uyor money ot fof the BNK@!@

-- RIGT R"ON! (master@bait.x), March 07, 2000.

Coming to a website near you:

Yourdon's Silicon Prefrontal Cortex Implants!!

So you can appear to be more "normal" than you actually are.

Sorry, no time for anything more than smartass remarks today.

-- RC (randyxpher@aol.com), March 07, 2000.