The role of the amygdala

What is the amygdala responsible for?

Processes social interactions and emotions of fear and aggression.

Where is the amygdala found?

Close to the hippocampus in frontal portion of the temporal lobe.

How does Raine’s (1997) study link to criminality?

Found murderers had differences in parts of the brain compared to non murderers which included the amygdala.

Coccaro et al (2007)

Found people with IED showed higher levels of amygdala activity when they viewed faccces.

Pardini (2013)

26 year old men with lower amygdala volumes were more than three times more likely to be aggressive, violent and show psychopahtic traits over a three year follow up than men of the same age with more normal sized amygdala.

How does functioning of the amygdala lead to criminal behaviour?

Amygdala dysfunction may lead to criminal and violent behaviour.

Feinstein et al (2012)

Investigated woman named SM who had lesions to both amygdala. She was unable to experience fear proving that it was responsible for fear. But SM never committed any crime in fact she had been victim of several crimes