Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Flashcards
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Lobes of the brain and their functions
theres 6 btw
clockwise order
Frontal lobe
• behavioral control, decision-making, emotions, thinking, planning, problem solving
Parietal lobe
• perception, senses, spelling, numbers, visio spatial knowledge
Occipital lobe
• vision, visual processing, colour identification
Cerebellum
• motor skills, hand eye coordination
Brain stem
• heart rate, breathing, swallowing
Temporal lobe
• memory, speech, facial recognition
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
The limbic system and functions
Hypothamalous
• thirst, hunger, sleep, mood, neurotransmitters and some hormones (tell p.g to release some stuff)
Pituitary gland
• hormones, growth, metabolism, stress etc reproduction
Corpus callosum
• this connects the two hemisphers of the brain for communication
The amygdala
• emotions just fear and aggression and responses from the environment and decision-making
The Hippocampus
• makes new long-term memories, convert short-term memories to long-term memories, links with the amygdla for emotional ties to memory, procedural memory
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
The prefrontal cortex
The Prefrontal cortex
• rational decisions, inhibitions (social and emotional), emotion/personality expression, attention/focus, Voice of reason, develops slowly into it reaches maturity in the mid-20s
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
key parts of brain damaged =
pfc, Amy, Hippo, Hypo
Damaged prefrontal cortex
• can lead to impaired decision-making and frustration then aggression leading to crime
• increase impulses and decrease inhibition
Damaged amygdala
• if reduced in function or size person could become cold, calculated, hostile behaviours
• if left is damaged then could have impaired threat detection meaning that adrenaline will be released in situations that don’t require fight or flights responses (also decreased fear)
• if increased activity in the right amygdala negative emotions such as aggression and anger impulses will become more common and stronger meaning somebody could become more violent and commit crimes
Damaged hippocampus
• they may not remember them morals so they have no fear of consequences so they commit violet crimes
• forget lessons that they’ve learned from their memory. therefore they will forget about emotional responses and when to stop hitting them. therefore they will simply continue until someone stops them.
Damaged hypothalamous
• could affect neurotransmitter levels for example low-serotonin personality disorder makes somebody impulsive and have irritable aggression
• whereas if it results in high levels of dopamine then there will be a decrease in recognition of facial emotions leading to violent crimes happening when they can’t tell what the victims response to their actions is
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
gender differences and TBIs
Traumatic brain injury is a type of acquired brain injury (ABI) and an ABI is damaged that was not there at birth
• for example falling over, Sports and child abuse are all ways that TBI can be acquired
Men and most at risk of TBI has there more likely to engage in risky behaviour such as contact sports or risky Industries such as an industrial factory
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Evidence -
kreutzer et al (1991)
use if asks for -
Kreutzer et al (1991)
• 74 TBI patients, 20% were arrested pre-injury, 10% arrested after injury
• most arrests after injury were due to alcohol or drugs
• therefore they concluded that criminal behavior may be a result of post injury changes comma poor judgment, apathy, or other new behaviors
• overall they were unable to prove or disprove a cause and effect between TBI and violence
• this is therefore evidence against TBi causing crime as despite not fully disproving the theory they did not prove that it occurred either
• therefore meaning that there could be other factors that have influenced them to commit the crimes other than TBI such as drugs and alcohol, as a clear cause and effect between TBi and violence was not found
Therefore due to not proving or disproving a connection between TBI and Violence (possible crime) but finding that other factors may have led patients to commit crimes, this study is evidence against TBI causing criminal behaviour
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
How good is the research +
Kreutzer et al (1991)
eco valid
use if asks for it with the - evidence
Kreutzer et al (1991)
• 1991 study was based off 74 real TBi patients of which 20% did commit crimes pre-injury and 10% had committed crimes after that injury
• due to these being real life cases of patients it shows that the studies results could and have been found in real life, giving the study high ecological validity
• therefore making this study good evidence to oppose the explanation that TBI causes crime
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Evidence +
Phineas Gage 1848
Phineas Gage
• in 1848 during a Railway construction accidents Phineas gage had an iron rod inserted in his skull piercing his prefrontal cortex
• before his injury he was reported to be a nice, calm person however post injury he became angry, mean and aggressive, “not gage”
• this shows that damaged the prefrontal cortex can cause personality changes and an increase of aggression which could lead to crime
• therefore the case study of Phineas gage supports the theory that brain injury (TBI) causes criminal behaviour
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
How good is the research -
Phineas gage 1848 case studies (not know what really like b4 injury)
Phineas Gage 1848
• we cannot be 100% sure that Phineas gauge was a nice calm person before his injury.
• this is due to the account being self-report from his family which could not be 100% accurate due to possible social desirability bias.
• as their family could have been trying to make Phineas gage seem like a good person to outsiders whereas in reality he was angry and mean to begin with
• therefore due social liability bias and unreliable self report it cannot be certain if there was a change in Phineas gage’s behavior after his accident therefore making his case study poor research to support the theory that brain injury (TBI) causes criminal behavior
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Evidence +
Hess 1928 Amygdala cats
Hess 1928
• hess electrically stimulated the Hypothalomous which aggravates the amygdala in cats.
• once the Amygdala was agravated by electrically stimulating thdy hypotalamous, cats showed an increase in anger and aggression toward a fake cat
• when the electrical stimulation stops the cats stops being aggressive towards the fake cats
• this is therefore evidence to support Brain injury (TBI) causing criminal behaviour as it shows the amygdala can be the cause of great aggression which could lead to criminal behavior if the amygdala is damaged increasing its activity
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
How good is the research -
Hess 1928 Animal research
Hess 1928
• they use an animal study with cats to electrically stimulate the hypothalamous agravating the amygdala
• therefore we cannot be 100% sure that the Amygdala had the same function in people and cats
• this is due to the biological difference between Cat brains and human brains
• and therefore the results that’s the amygdala is related to aggression (leading to crime if damaged increasing it’s activity) cannot be generalized to humans and therefore is bad research to support the explanation that brain injury (TBI) causes criminal behavior
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
evidence +
Raine at al 1997
Raine et al 1997
• they use pet scans to compare the brains of 41 NGRI murderers with the brains of 41 non-murders
• they found that the hippocampus had decreased glucose activity in NGRI murderers compared to non- murders
• this meant the murderers were not able to learn from their previous memories and taught morals therefore they would not know about the consequences of their actions or to think to reconsider what they are doing
• therefore Raine et al is evidence to support brain injury (TBI) causing criminal behavior and it shows criminals brains a different non-criminal brains and the difference resulted in different functioning of the hippocampus which led to crime in the same way a damaged brain would alter the functioning of the hippocampus, therefore providing evidence to support the theory
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
How good is the research -
Raine et al 1997 low eco validity
• The study took place in a lab which then artificial setting
• meaning that there are many controls that would not have existed in real life
• due to having many controls and taking place in an artificial setting the study may not have shown valid results of what the brain would do/act/behave in a real life situation (an actual murder)
• therefore meaning that’s the study cannot be applied to real life giving it low ecological validity
• therefore making this study poor research to support the theory that brain injury (TBI) causes criminal behavior
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Limitation
Determanistic ( James Fallon)
PROBABLY DONT USE CUZ ITS NOT A BRAIN INJURY JUST A MURDERES BRAIN
• this theory is deterministic as James Fallon and his and his family’s brains which his family has a history of crime
• • James was the only one with a criminal brain however he had never committed a crime as his mother had taught him morals
• meaning that just because they have a criminal brain does not make somebody a criminal as there are other factors involved
• makes the study deterministic as it states that due to James Fallon having a criminal brain he should be a criminal despite him not being
• therefore making the theory that brain injusry causes criminal behaviour, deterministic
l
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Compared to SLT +/-
eco + gen -
++++
• compared to SLT, brain injury is a better explanation of why people have criminal behavior due to a lot of research into brain injury is field research based on people with traumatic brain injuries
• therefore the majority of evidence supporting brain injury causing criminal behavior has high ecological validity as the results are represented and can be applied to real life as they are from real life
• wall the majority of evidence for SLT is land-based and therefore highly artificial and controlled meaning that they have lower ecological validity as due to the artificial setting and control the results of the studies are less likely to occur in real life giving them low ecological validity
• this therefore means that brain injury is a better explanation of criminal behaviour than social learning theory as the majority of research done on brain injury has high ecological validity while the majority of research done on SLT does not
Meaning the results that support brain injury causing criminal behaviour a more likely to occur in real life
————
SLT is better than brain injury at explaining criminal behaviour due to SLT being able to be applied to more people
• in bandora’s 1961, 3, 5 studys he found that children would imitate aggression towards a bobo doll
• aggression may lead to criminal behaviour
• this research was done on children
• this highlights a weakness in brain injuries explanation as the only explains criminals who have brain injuries whereas SLT can be applied to all criminals therefore explaining all crimes therefore making it a better explanation of criminal behaviour the brain injuries
