Brain Injury Flashcards
What’s the general role of the PFC?
Planning, decision making and working memory. It also controls personality expression and the planning of complex cognitive behaviours. It contains our personality and has input on our emotional responses and social inhibitions.
If the PFC is damaged, how could this explain criminal behaviour?
- May have less control over our impulses which may lead to opportunity crimes.
- Inability to plan ahead, leading to lack of fear of consequences so they are more likely to partake in anti-social behaviour.
e.g. Phineas Gage
What is the general role of the hypothalamus?
It is responsible for the production of essential hormones which help temperature regulation, hunger, sleep, mood and libido and houses the pituitary gland.
If the hypothalamus is damaged, why could this explain criminal behaviour?
- Increased adrenaline which may lead to an urge to commit a crime and increase dopamine levels that are missing.
- May interpret social stimuli incorrectly which may send incorrect impulses to the pituitary gland, leading to an increase in testosterone which may lead to an increase in aggressive behaviour.
What is the general role of the hippocampus?
The hippocampus has an important role in memory; turning short-term memories into long-term memories.
If the hippocampus was damaged, how could this impact criminal behaviour?
- Inability to learn from mistakes so no fear of consequences, leading to recidivism.
- Inability to link emotion response to memories so they don’t learn how to respond to fearful stimuli which means they have a lack of empathy, commonly associated with criminal behaviour.
What is the general role of the amygdala?
The amygdala is responsible for the perception of emotions as well as controlling aggression
If the amygdala was damaged, how could this explain criminal behaviour?
- Damage could mean no control over aggression which may lead to violent crimes.
- Can’t perceive emotions well which leads to a lack of empathy towards the victim.
e.g Charles Whitman
What is an ABI?
Acquired brain injury
e.g tumour, strike, infection etc
What is a TBI?
Traumatic brain injury
e.g assaults, falls, road accidents etc
Kreutzer et al
Unable to prove or disprove a cause and effect between a TBI and violence. Study concluded that criminal behaviour might be a result of post injury changes including apathy, judgement and other new behaviours.
Williams (2010)
60% of young people in custody report having experience some kind of TBI. It is thought that a TBI in young people may lead to an interruption in development of young people’s abilities to restrain their impulses which may lead to anti-social behaviour which is opportunistic.
Grafman et al
Concluded that ventromedial frontal lobe lesions could result in violent behaviour because frontal lobe damage makes it more difficult for the brain to assess social skills leading to disinhibition and aggression. 14% of the group with frontal lobe injury exhibited physical violence compared to 5% with the controls measured using a triangulation of methods.
Virkkunen
No significant differences between a TBI group and a non- TBI control group. 5.5% v 4.2%. Most of the convictions in both groups, however, were associated with with alcohol.
Sarparta et al
Found that a large percentage of offenders (50%) report a head injury and in comparison to the prevalence of a head injury in the general population this was only 2-5%, thus supporting the idea that a TBI leads to criminality.
