When serial killers, school shooters, and violent attackers explode, we often wonder what triggered the perfect storm. Why is it that we cannot identify the warning signs of a rampage killer until it is too late? It is not until the damage is done that indicators seem obvious and friends or family are left wondering what went wrong. To try and prevent further tragedies, doctors and psychologists have been working to dissect the minds of the individuals we usually call “crazy,” or “psychotic.” Through extensive research doctors have identified the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala as the two brain regions the most responsible for controlling and causing catastrophic violence. It is important to understand how the human brain works along with mental health issues to create violent individuals.
The prefrontal cortex is located in the frontal
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It is one of the oldest parts of our brains and is wired into our instinctive need to protect, hunt, and defend against immediate dangers and threats. However, today people do not exist in a state where they need to hunt or kill other people to protect themselves. So, when this primitive brain region drives a person to respond to danger, anger, or stress in a violent way, innocent people become victims of a rampage killer. Many times people with mutated amygdala functioning also have suicidal thoughts, depressive feelings, trouble socializing, and feelings of isolation. They are also incapable of handling stress and cannot use multiple brain regions at once, which inhibits higher level thinking and reasoning. When brain regions cannot operate in unison and keep a person under control, the amygdala can go out of control. Coupling violence as a response to anger with feelings of depression, suicide and antisocial disorders we see people building a dangerous combination that is bound to equate to