Evil Genes

by Barbara Oakley

  28. M. Ribases et al., “Contribution of NTRK2 to the Genetic Susceptibility to Anorexia Nervosa, Harm Avoidance and Minimum Body Mass Index,” Molecular Psychiatry 10, no. 9 (2005): 851–60.

  29. J. Strauss et al., “BDNF and COMT Polymorphisms: Relation to Memory Phenotypes in Young Adults with Childhood-Onset Mood Disorder,” Neuromolecular Medicine 5, no. 3 (2004): 181–92.

  30. A. Thapar et al., “Catechol O-methyltransferase Gene Variant and Birth Weight Predict Early-Onset Antisocial Behavior in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,” Archives of General Psychiatry 62, no. 11 (2005): 1275–78.

  31. Ke Xu and D. Goldman, “Catechol-O-methyltransferase Genotype, Intermediate Phenotype, and Psychiatric Disorders,” in Cell Biology of Addiction, ed. Bertha Madras et al. (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2005), pp. 29–44.

  32. K. Xu, M. Ernst, and D. Goldman, “Imaging Genomics Applied to Anxiety, Stress Response, and Resiliency,” Neuroinformatics 4, no. 1 (2006): 51–64.

  33. Xu and Goldman, “Catechol-O-methyltransferase Genotype.”

  34. Michael N. Smolka et al., “Catechol-O-methyltransferase val158met Genotype Affects Processing of Emotional Stimuli in the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex,” Journal of Neuroscience 25, no. 4 (2005): 836–43.

  35. Ibid.; Xu, Ernst, and Goldman, “Imaging Genomics.”

  36. Xu, Ernst, and Goldman, “Imaging Genomics.”

  37. I. W. Craig, “The Role of Monoamine Oxidase A, MAOA, in the Aetiology of Antisocial Behaviour: The Importance of Gene-Environment Interactions,” Novartis Foundation Symposium 268 (2005): 227–37; discussion 237–41, 242–53; A. Serretti et al., “Temperament and Character in Mood Disorders: Influence of DRD4, SERTPR, TPH and MAO-A Polymorphisms,” Neuropsychobiology 53, no. 1 (2006): 9–16.

  38. Christian P. Jacob et al., “Cluster B Personality Disorders Are Associated with Allelic Variation of Monoamine Oxidase A Activity,” Neuropsychopharmacology 30, no. 9 (2005): 1711–18.

  39. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg et al., “Neural Mechanisms of Genetic Risk for Impulsivity and Violence in Humans,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103, no. 16 (2006): 6269–74.

  40. Ibid.

  41. H. G. Brunner et al., “Abnormal Behavior Associated with a Point Mutation in the Structural Gene for Monoamine Oxidase A,” Science 262, no. 5133 (1993): 578–80.

  42. Avshalom Caspi et al., “Role of Genotype in the Cycle of Violence in Maltreated Children,” Science 297 (2002): 851–54.

  43. Meshorer et al., “SC35”; Meshorer and Soreq, “Virtues and Woes.”

  44. T. E. Moffitt, “The New Look of Behavioral Genetics in Developmental Psychopathology: Gene-Environment Interplay in Antisocial Behaviors,” Psychological Bulletin 131, no. 4 (2005): 533–54.

  45. S. M. Brown et al., “A Regulatory Variant of the Human Tryptophan Hydroxylase-2 Gene Biases Amygdala Reactivity,” Molecular Psychiatry 10, no. 9 (2005): 884–88, 805; Serretti et al., “Temperament”; G. Zaboli et al., “Tryptophan Hydroxylase-1 Gene Variants Associate with a Group of Suicidal Borderline Women,” Neuropsychopharmacology 31, no. 9 (2006): 1982–90.

  46. J. Auerbach et al., “Dopamine D4 Receptor (D4DR) and Serotonin Transporter (5-HTTLPR) Polymorphisms in the Determination of Temperament in 2-Month-Old Infants,” Molecular Biology 4 (1999): 369–73.

  47. “Common Gene Version Optimizes Thinking—but with a Possible Downside,” NIH News, February 8, 2007, http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/feb2007/nimh-08.htm (accessed February 25, 2007).

  48. A. Knafo et al., “Individual Differences in Allocation of Funds in the Dictator Game Associated with Length of the Arginine Vasopressin 1a Receptor RS3 Promoter Region and Correlation between RS3 Length and Hippocampal mRNA,” Genes, Brain, and Behavior 7, no. 3 (2008): 266–75.

  49. D. T. Lykken et al., “Emergenesis: Genetic Traits That May Not Run in Families,” American Psychologist 47, no. 12 (1992): 1565–77.

  50. R. Bachner-Melman et al., “AVPR1a and SLC6A4 Gene Polymorphisms Are Associated with Creative Dance Performance,” PLoS Genetics 1, no. 3 (2005): e42; R. Oerter, “Biological and Psychological Correlates of Exceptional Performance in Development,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 999 (2003): 451–60.

  51. E. F. Torrey and R. H. Yolken, “Toxoplasma gondii and Schizophrenia,” Emerging Infectious Diseases 9, no. 11 (2003): 1375–80.

  52. Ni et al., “Association between Serotonin”; A. E. Skodol et al., “The Borderline Diagnosis II: Biology, Genetics, and Clinical Course,” Biological Psychiatry 51, no. 12 (2002): 951–63.

  53. Norbert Wiener, Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1953), p. 158.

  54. Larry J. Siever, Harold W. Koenigsberg, and Deidre Reynolds, “Neurobiology of Personality Disorders: Implications for a Neurodevelopmental Model,” in Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms in Psychopathology, ed. Dante Cicchetti and Elaine Walker (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 416–17; A. E. Skodol and Donna S. Bender, “Why Are Women Diagnosed Borderline More Than Men?” Psychiatric Quarterly 74, no. 4 (2003): 349–60; S. Torgersen, “Genetics in Borderline Conditions,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Supplementum 379 (1994): 19–25.

  55. Ibid., pp. 11–12.

  56. Nicholas Wade, “Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes,” New York Times, June 3, 2005.

  CHAPTER 4: USING MEDICAL IMAGING TO UNDERSTAND PSYCHOPATHS

  1. “Functional Families, Dysfunctional Brains,” Science Daily, April 10, 1998, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/04/980410101830.htm (accessed November 24, 2005).

  2. An excellent article about both the strengths and weaknesses of imaging approaches can be found in Malcolm Gladwell, “The Picture Problem: Mammography, Air Power, and the Limits of Looking,” New Yorker, December 13, 2004.

  3. Kent A. Kiehl et al., “Limbic Abnormalities in Affective Processing by Criminal Psychopaths as Revealed by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging,” Biological Psychiatry 50, no. 9 (2001): 677–84.

  4. S. W. Anderson et al., “Impairment of Social and Moral Behavior Related to Early Damage in Human Prefrontal Cortex,” Nature Neuroscience 2 (1999): 1032–37; A. Bechara et al., “Insensitivity to Future Consequences Following Damage to Human Prefrontal Cortex,” Cognition 50 (1994): 7–15; A. R. Damasio, D. Tranel, and H. Damasio, “Individuals with Sociopathic Behavior Caused by Frontal Damage Fail to Respond Autonomically to Social Stimuli,” Behavioural Brain Research 41 (1990): 81–94.

  5. Kent Kiehl in communication with the author, July 5, 2005.

  6. Adrian Raine et al., “Corpus Callosum Abnormalities in Psychopathic Antisocial Individuals,” Archives of General Psychiatry 60 (2003): 1134–42.

  7. Adrian Raine and Yaling Yang, “The Neuroanatomical Bases of Psychopathy: A Review of Brain Imaging Findings,” in Handbook of Psychopathy, ed. Christopher J. Patrick (New York: Guilford Press, 2006), pp. 278–95.

  8. G. P. Shumyatsky et al., “Stathmin, a Gene Enriched in the Amygdala, Controls Both Learned and Innate Fear,” Cell 123, no. 4 (2005): 697–709.

  9. James Blair, Derek Mitchell, and Karina Blair, The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), p. 139; R. J. Blair, “Neurobiological Basis of Psychopathy,” British Journal of Psychiatry 182 (2003): 5–7; F. Schneider et al., “Functional Imaging of Conditioned Aversive Emotional Responses in Antisocial Personality Disorder,” Neuropsychobiology 42 (2000): 192–201.

  10. Sharon Ishikawa and Adrian Raine, “Prefrontal Deficits and Antisocial Behavior: A Causal Model,” in Causes of Conduct Disorder and Juvenile Delinquency, ed. Avshalom Caspi, Benjamin B. Lahey, and Terrie Moffitt (New York: Guilford Press, 2003), pp. 277–304.

  11. “Functional Families, Dysfunctional Brains.”

  12. Adrian Raine et al., “Reduced Prefrontal and Increased Subcortical Brain Functioning Assessed Using Positron Emission Tomography in Predatory and Affective Murderers,” Behavioral Sc
iences and the Law 16 (1998): 319–32.

  13. Bechara et al., “Insensitivity”; A. Bechara et al., “Different Contributions of the Human Amygdala and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex to Decision-Making,” Journal of Neuroscience 19, no. 13 (1999): 5473–81; L. K. Fellows and M. J. Farah, “Different Underlying Impairments in Decision-Making Following Ventromedial and Dorsolateral Frontal Lobe Damage in Humans,” Cerebral Cortex 15, no. 1 (2005): 58–63.

  14. This example is after that of Meloy, Violence.

  15. Adrian Raine, “Psychopathy, Violence, and Brain Imaging,” in Violence and Psychopathy, ed. Adrian Raine and José Sanmartín (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2001), pp. 35–56.

  16. Adrian Raine, “Murderous Minds: Can We See the Mark of Cain?” Cerebrum 1, no. 1 (1999): 15–30.

  17. Kent A. Kiehl et al., “Temporal Lobe Abnormalities in Semantic Processing by Criminal Psychopaths as Revealed by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging,” Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 130, no. 1 (2004): 27–42.

  18. Terrence W. Deacon, The Symbolic Species (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997), pp. 427, 459; Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg et al., “Neural Correlates of Genetically Abnormal Social Cognition in Williams Syndrome,” Nature Neuroscience 8, no. 8 (2005): 991–95.

  19. David Dobbs, “The Gregarious Brain,” New York Times Magazine, July 8, 2007.

  20. Jef Allbright, “Scientists Watch the Brain Wrestle with Moral Dilemmas,” Jef's Web Files, 2004, http://www.jefallbright.net/node/2691 (accessed December 29, 2005); Jorge Moll et al., “The Neural Correlates of Moral Sensitivity: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation of Basic and Moral Emotions,” Journal of Neuroscience 22, no. 7 (2002): 2730–36.

  21. Dharol Tankersley, C. Jill Stowe, and Scott A. Huettel, “Altruism Is Associated with an Increased Neural Response to Agency,” Nature Neuroscience 10 (2007): 150–51.

  22. E. J. Mundell, “Why Do Good? Brain Study Offers Clues,” HealthDay, January 22, 2007, http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=601147 (accessed January 23, 2007).

  23. H. Takahashi et al., “Brain Activation Associated with Evaluative Processes of Guilt and Embarrassment: An fMRI Study,” Neuroimage 23, no. 3 (2004): 967–74. See also S. Berthoz et al., “Affective Response to One's Own Moral Violations,” Neuroimage 31, no. 2 (2006): 945–50; E. C. Finger et al., “Caught in the Act: The Impact of Audience on the Neural Response to Morally and Socially Inappropriate Behavior,” Neuroimage 33, no. 1 (2006): 414–21; C. L. Harenski and S. Hamann, “Neural Correlates of Regulating Negative Emotions Related to Moral Violations,” Neuroimage 30, no. 1 (2006): 313–24; Moll, Oliveira-Sousa, and Eslinger, “Morals and the Human Brain.”

  24. D. J. Stein and D. Kaminer, “Forgiveness and Psychopathology: Psychobiological and Evolutionary Underpinnings,” CNS Spectrums 11, no. 2 (2006): 87–89.

  25. Raine and Yang, “Neural Foundations.” This paper contains a comprehensive review of virtually all neurological imaging findings related to antisocial behavior, which is much more extensive than the basic findings presented here.

  26. Paul J. Frick and Monica A. Marsee, “Psychopathy and Developmental Pathways to Antisocial Behavior in Youth,” in Handbook of Psychopathy, ed. Christopher J. Patrick (New York: Guilford Press, 2005), pp. 353–74.

  27. Meloy, Violence, pp. 121–22.

  28. “Psychologist Adds Scientific Insight to Loaded Label of ‘Psychopath,’” Physorg.com, June 28, 2006, http://www.physorg.com/news70728146.html (accessed July 1, 2006).

  29. Joseph Newman, in correspondence with the author, February 1, 2007.

  30. Sandra Blakeslee, “Cells That Read Minds,” New York Times, January 10, 2006.

  31. R. James Blair and Karina S. Perschardt, “Empathy: A Unitary Circuit or a Set of Dissociable Neuro-Cognitive Systems?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25 (2002): 27–28.

  32. Deacon, Symbolic Species, p. 402; Linda Mealey and Stuart Kinner, “The Perception-Action Model of Empathy and Psychopathic ‘Cold-Heartedness,’” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25 (2002): 42–43.

  33. Raine and Yang, “Neuroanatomical Bases”; Yaling Yang et al., “Volume Reduction in Prefrontal Gray Matter in Unsuccessful Criminal Psychopaths,” Biological Psychiatry 57, no. 10 (2005): 1103–1108.

  34. Jamie Talan, “Lying Liars,” Scientific American Mind (April 2006): 8; Y. Yang et al., “Prefrontal White Matter in Pathological Liars,” British Journal of Psychiatry 187 (2005): 320–25.

  35. Lisa Desai, “‘Corporate Psychopaths’ at Large,” CNN, August 26, 2004, http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/08/26/corporate.psychopaths/ (accessed September 28, 2005). See also Paul Babiak and Robert Hare, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (New York: HarperCollins, 2006).

  36. Desai, “‘Corporate Psychopaths’ at Large.”

  CHAPTER 5: INSIGHTS FROM MY SISTER'S LOVE LETTERS

  1. Richard L. Bruno, The Polio Paradox: Uncovering the Hidden History of Polio to Understand and Treat “Post-Polio Syndrome” and Chronic Fatigue (New York: Warner Books, 2002), pp. 47–54.

  2. Richard Bruno in correspondence with the author, February 16, 2007.

  3. R. L. Bruno et al., “The Neuroanatomy of Post-Polio Fatigue,” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 75, no. 5 (1994): 498– 504; R. L. Bruno, N. M. Frick, and J. Cohen, “Polioencephalitis, Stress, and the Etiology of Post-Polio Sequelae,” Orthopedics 14, no. 11 (1991): 1269–76.

  4. Richard Bruno in correspondence with the author, February 18, 2007.

  5. Bruno, Frick, and Cohen, “Polioencephalitis.”

  6. E. Meyer, “Psychological Considerations in a Group of Children with Poliomyelitis,” Journal of Pediatrics 31 (1947): 34–48; John R. Paul, A History of Poliomyelitis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971). Meyer's study also examined older and younger children—52 in total.

  7. Bruno, Polio Paradox, pp. 105–106.

  8. S. J. Creange and R. L. Bruno, “Compliance with Treatment for Postpolio Sequelae: Effect of Type A Behavior, Self-Concept, and Loneliness,” American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 76, no. 5 (1997): 378–82.

  9. Meyer, “Psychological Considerations.”

  10. R. L. Bruno and N. M. Frick, “The Psychology of Polio as Prelude to Post-Polio Sequelae: Behavior Modification and Psychotherapy,” Orthopedics 14, no. 11 (1991): 1185–93.

  11. Ibid.

  CHAPTER 6: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MACHIAVELLIANISM AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS

  1. I. I. Gottesman, “Defining Genetically Informed Phenotypes for the DSM-V,” in Descriptions and Prescriptions: Values, Mental Disorders and the DSMs, ed. J. Z. Sadler (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).

  2. A. C. Ruocco, “Re-evaluating the Distinction between Axis I and Axis II Disorders: The Case of Borderline Personality Disorder,” Journal of Clinical Psychology 61, no. 12 (2005): 1509–23.

  3. Roger K. Blashfield and Vincent Intoccia, “Growth of the Literature on the Topic of Personality Disorders,” American Journal of Psychiatry 157 (2000): 472–73.

  4. John W. McHoskey, “Machiavellianism and Personality Dysfunction,” Personality and Individual Differences 31 (2001): 791–98.

  5. Robert O. Friedel, Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified (New York: Marlowe & Company, 2004), p. 24.

  6. M. Bohus, C. Schmahl, and K. Lieb, “New Developments in the Neurobiology of Borderline Personality Disorder,” Current Psychiatry Reports 6 (2004): 43–50; M. F. Lenzenweger et al., “Detecting Personality Disorders in a Nonclinical Population,” Archives of General Psychiatry 54 (1997): 345–51.

  7. Jerold J. Kreisman and Hal Straus, Sometimes I Act Crazy (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004), p. 4; Paul T. Mason and Randi Kreger, Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care about Has Borderline Personality Disorder (Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 1998).

  8. Peter A. Johnson et al., “Understanding Emotion Regulation in Borderline Personality Disorder: Contributions
of Neuroimaging,” Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 15, no. 4 (2003): 397–402.

  9. Joel Paris, “Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorders: Two Separate Diagnoses or Two Aspects of the Same Psychopathology?” Comprehensive Psychiatry 38, no. 4 (1997): 237–42.

  10. Information in the box is adapted from Steven Leichter and Elizabeth Dreelin, “Borderline Personality Disorder and Diabetes: A Potentially Ominous Mix,” Clinical Diabetes 23 (2005): 101–103; Mason and Kreger, Eggshells; Timothy J. Trull and Christine A. Durrett, “Categorical and Dimensional Models of Personality Disorder,” Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 1 (2005): 355–80.

  11. Barry Kiehn and Michaela Swales, “An Overview of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder,” Psychiatry On-Line, http://www.priory.com/dbt.htm (accessed January 25, 2007).

  12. Joel Paris, “Borderline Personality Disorder,” James Wood, PhD, http://www.jwoodphd.com/borderline_personality_disorder.htm (accessed December 3, 2006).

  13. Kreisman and Straus, Crazy.

  14. Ibid., p. v.

  15. Mason and Kreger, Eggshells, p. 46.

  16. Ibid., p. 47.

  17. Alan Butterfield, “Pin Thin: 105 lbs . . . and Getting Thinner!” National Enquirer, October 17, 2005, pp. 4–5; C. A. Magill, “The Boundary between Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder: Current Concepts and Challenges,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 49, no. 8 (2004): 551–56; Jim Phelps, “What's the Difference between Bipolar Disorder and ‘Borderline Personality Disorder’?” PsychEducation.org, 2006, http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/borderline.htm (accessed February 2, 2007).

  18. Kreisman and Straus, Crazy, p. 50.

  19. Leichter and Dreelin, “Borderline Personality Disorder.”

  20. H. W. Koenigsberg et al., “Are the Interpersonal and Identity Disturbances in the Borderline Personality Disorder Criteria Linked to the Traits of Affective Instability and Impulsivity?” Journal of Personality Disorders 15, no. 4 (2001): 358–70.