A Psychopath’s Brain
The Psychopaths Among Us
When Dr. James H. Fallon, a renowned American neuroscientist, conducted a study on Alzheimer’s disease in October 2005, he needed eight additional participants to complete his control group — consisting of people who did not suffer from the neurodegenerative disease. So he asked his family members and his wife to come to his laboratory at the University of California, Irvine and have their brains scanned by a PET scanner. He also had his own brain scanned in the process and added his image to the control group. A PET scanner creates 3D images which highlight the activity level of brain areas using various colours from red and yellow to green and blue.
When Fallon reviewed the PET images of the control group, he was relieved that all his family members including his wife showed no abnormalities in the brain images — Fallon knew that his wife’s parents suffered from Alzheimer’s. However, when he got to the last image, he noticed that it was very different from all the others. The image showed a colour pattern that was very unusual and it was not a pattern associated with Alzheimer’s disease. He wondered if this was the result of a mix-up with another study he was conducting about the same time or maybe the lab technician was playing a prank on him — but when he asked him, he denied it.
Fallon thought that someone with a brain like this should not be allowed to walk around in open society. Fallon finally decided to check the actual identity of the person behind the brain image and found that it was his own. He was looking at the image of a psychopath’s brain.
Positron Emission Tomography
In the 1980s so called Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners became available for medical laboratories. In the early days, they were very expensive and had a rather low resolution. This breakthrough technology requires that a so called radiotracer substance is injected into the subject’s body. There are various radiotracers, e.g. one is used to detect cancer cells (18F-FDG) while others, like the radioactive isotope oxygen-15, indirectly measure the blood flow in various brain areas.
While under the PET scanner, the test subject has to perform a series of mental tasks or, depending on the test purpose, has to look at photos which are supposed to trigger certain emotional responses. During the scanning process, the radiotracer decays and emits two protons which are detected by the PET scanner. The resulting 3D image shows the average brain activity level during the time interval — with red meaning a high activity level.
Criminal Minds
Since PET scanners became available, the new technology had caught the attention of defence lawyers who saw a chance that their clients, some of whom were accused of murder, might benefit from extenuating circumstances if it could be proven that they suffered from an abnormal brain condition. This is how Dr. Fallon, a specialist in neurobiology and chemical neuroanatomy, became intrigued by brain imaging.
In one of his most famous studies, Fallon analysed the PET images of 45 criminals. About 20 among these images showed a similar visual pattern, different from the other 25 images: a low activity level in the frontal and parietal lobes as well as in the orbital cortex and the amygdala. The criminals to whom these brain images belonged where all murderers. The PET scan images were anonymised so Fallon did not know the individuals to whom they belonged at first. Fallon knew however, that individuals with these PET brain patterns could hardly feel empathy or remorse and were probably dangerous criminals. In one case, Fallon even guessed correctly that the individual suffered from a speech impediment — the test subject was Joel Rifkin, who is indeed a stutterer.
Joel Rifkin was a notorious serial killer, who in 1993 was sentenced to 203 years in prison for the murder of nine women, though he is believed to have murdered up to 17 victims, most of them prostitutes. When Rifkin was finally caught during a routine traffic check, the body of a woman was found in his trunk. Rifkin told the police that he had had sex with her and things had gotten out of hand. In disbelief over his own arrest, he asked if the policeman thought that he needed a lawyer…
Another of the brain images belonged to Cary Stayner, the so called “Yosemite killer”, who had murdered a mother, her child and an exchange student at a motel in the entrance area of Yosemite National Park in 1997.
These are just two examples of serial killers who were diagnosed with psychopathy. “Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterised by persistent antisocial behaviour, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits” (source).
Moreover, most psychopaths are fearless, highly intelligent and manipulative. That is why, for instance, Rifkin remained very calm in the routine traffic check that led to his arrest. Robert Spangler (IQ 167), another infamous serial killer, had murdered all of his three wives one by one. During a hike in the Grand Canyon, he pushed his third wife over the edge. He was finally arrested on his way to the Grand Canyon together with his fourth wife. When questioned by the police and confronted with Spangler’s previous murders, she was convinced that he truly loved her and would never kill her.
A Psychopathy Checklist
Psychopathy is a multi-dimensional psychological phenomenon, so a short definition in a single sentence can hardly capture its complexity. In the 1970s, the Canadian psychologist Robert D. Hare developed a checklist to assess the presence of psychopathy in individuals — at first mostly to distinguish real psychopathy from antisocial personality disorder, a similar but distinct mental illness. The checklist consists of 20 questions that are intended to capture perceived personality traits and recorded behaviours. The questions should be answered through an interview with the patient and by adding official records about the patient’s behaviour.
It is important to note that the checklist is not a questionnaire to be answered by the patient himself or herself since real psychopaths are masters of manipulation and deceit. That’s why, for instance, lie detectors don’t work well on a psychopath. Instead, a trained psychiatrist has to complete the questionnaire under scientifically controlled conditions.
Each item in the checklist can have a maximum score of 2 points, which means that the trait or behaviour is strongly prevalent, while 1 point means the trait or behaviour can somewhat be detected and 0 means it does not apply at all. In the United States a total score of at least 30 means the test subject can be considered as psychopathic.
It is not known if serial killers like Rifkin, Spangler or Stayner have ever been assessed with Hare’s checklist. However, given their behaviour and horrible acts, it can be safely assumed that they would reach a very high score.
Fallon’s family history
Dr. Fallon, who in 2005 had found out that his own brain shows the typical neurological pattern of a psychopath, is not a serial killer. He is not even a violent person. Fallon realised that his theory relying on PET scan images only might be incomplete. It seemed that this specific PET scan image pattern showing low or virtually no activity in the orbital cortex was a necessary but not a sufficient condition to determine if a test subject is a psychopathic killer.
Fallon wondered if his own behaviour showed even the slightest traits of psychopathy. So he asked his wife, relatives and friends. His wife told him that it didn’t surprise her that her husband had the PET image pattern of a psychopath… She remembered that James had celebrated for days with his friends after his first child was born — essentially, he was celebrating himself though and didn’t seem to care about her and his child.
His brother reminded him of an episode that happened when Fallon stayed in Kenya for a research project. He came to visit him and James had the idea to take him to visit the so called Kitum Cave at the Ugandan border. Because the cave’s walls are rich in salts, animals like elephants tend to walk into the cave in search of salt. James Fallon wanted to see if they could spot elephants or other animals. He knew that they would probably not run into anyone because there was group of Ugandan rebels nearby…
About two years later, in the early 1990s, a movie called “Outbreak” was released (which was based on the book “Hot Zone”). The story was about the outbreak of the Marburg virus — a deadly virus strain which has some similarity to Ebola and which also causes haemorrhaging. James’ brother realised that the movie was based on a Marburg virus outbreak linked to the Kitum Cave in Kenya. Fallon had known about it but did not tell his brother…
Fallon realised that there were episodes of selfish, thrill-seeking and almost reckless behaviour in his life. Possessing the exact brain pattern of a psychopathic killer, he wondered if his family had any criminal history, so he decided to find out more about his ancestors. Fallon is in fact descendant of Ezra Cornell (yes, the one who founded Cornell University). In the process, he indeed learnt about eight (potential) murderers among his ancestors.
First, there was Thomas Cornell who was sentenced to death in 1673 for murdering his mother. In 1843, another of Fallon’s ancestors was accused of striking down his wife with a shovel and killing her with a razor blade. Lizzie Borden, a distant cousin in Thomas Cornell’s family branch, was accused of killing her step mother and father with an axe (but was never convicted). Lastly, Fallon’s grandfather, a dentist, was one of the main suspects in the murder case of Hazel Drew in 1908 (the story inspired the 1990s TV series “Twin Peaks” by the way).
Given his family history, Fallon decided to dig deeper and have his DNA and that of eight of his family members analysed. His own genetic profile analysis revealed that he possessed five major gene variants linked to aggressive behaviour, including the so called “warrior’s gene” MAO-A. It is likely that many of his ancestors had these genetic predispositions for violent behaviour, too — in some cases this predisposition lead to actual violent behaviour.
Narcissism and Psychopathy
The German journalist Andreas Berbner, who had interviewed and portrayed James Fallon in an article of the German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” (Die Zeit, No 31/2021), had tried to contact Robert Hare — to ask him to get an assessment of James Fallon with Hare’s psychopathy checklist. How would Fallon score? Hare, who is 86 year old, referred Berbner to his German long-time colleague Prof. A. Mokros. Mokros agreed to make an assessment of James Fallon based on facts that Berbner had gathered on Fallon during his interview and other know facts about Fallon. Mokros’ analysis resulted in a score of 14. To put this in perspective: most people get a score of 5 at maximum. So 14 is quite high but it is still far from a score of 30 that a clinical psychopath would reach. Fallon estimates that about 1% of the population are full-blown clinical psychopaths and about 5% who can be considered as borderline psychopaths — they have many of the personality traits associated with psychopathy but not all of them.
Fallon considers himself a “pro-social psychopath”. Indeed, instead of harming society, Fallon turned out to be very useful for society, because during his long career he made significant scientific contributions in several neuroscientific fields, e.g. adult brain stem cell research. He also made contributions in the fields of schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease as well as Alzheimer’s disease (a more comprehensive list can be found here).
Given Fallon’s rather low score, it might be more appropriate to consider him a narcissist instead of a psychopath. Narcissists can be very useful to society as many of them are natural leaders with a higher-than-average willingness to take risks. Many entrepreneurs are narcissists (Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are probably among the most well-known). According to “Psychology Today”, “Narcissism is characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy for others, a need for excessive admiration, and the belief that one is unique and deserving of special treatment”. Maybe the need for excessive admiration can be a driving force of success?
Nature vs. Nurture
In the light of James Fallon’s psychopathic brain and his genetic predisposition for violent behaviour, why did he not turn into a psychopathic murderer? The answer, as he says himself (see here), lies in his upbringing. He was raised in a relatively wealthy, loving family and never struggled with issues that troubled adolescents often are confronted with. What distinguishes Fallon’s childhood most from Rifkin’s or Stayner’s childhoods is the absence of a major trauma. Rifkin was separated from his parents when he was only three years old. When Stayner was 11 years old, his younger brother was abducted and held captive for seven years by a child molester. Stayner said that he felt neglected during that time and moreover, his uncle had molested him.
Many murderers are indeed as much perpetrators as they are victims. Childhood traumata can trigger abnormal behaviour and together with genetic and neurological predispositions even explain how someone turns into a serial killer. James Fallon’s case shows that these predispositions are not deterministic and that the social environment, especially during early childhood and adolescence, plays an important role in someone’s personality development.
Sources:
https://www.zeit.de/2021/31/index#Dossier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Fallon
https://www.jordanharbinger.com/james-fallon-how-to-spot-a-psychopath/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography#Neurology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_positron_emission_tomography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_Checklist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Rifkin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Stayner
https://scienceleadership.org/blog/the_neuroscience_of_psychopaths
https://www.vice.com/en/article/8gdevk/dr-james-fallon-makes-being-a-psychopath-look-like-fun-110
http://www.psychiatry.uci.edu/features/fallon-feature-11152013.asp
