Bases biológicas y sociales de la violencia. Un viaje al cerebro de los violentos

Resumen

Aggressiveness is innate. The amygdala is the neural center in charge of sorting out and integrating the automatic components of aggressive behavior. It also appears to be the brain structure in control of the instinctive inhibition of aggressiveness. There is also conscious control of aggressive behavior, in this case by the prefrontal cortex. When regulated by these controls, the display of aggressive conduct is biologically efficient. Violence and aggressiveness are not the same. Violence is hypertrophied aggressiveness. This hypertrophy may be due to problems affecting the innate mechanisms involved in the display of aggressive behavior or its control. In most cases, however, its origin lies in problems related to the ideas, thoughts, or feelings that the individual has acquired through life and that constitute the background against which the prefrontal cortex will interpret its emotions and resulting actions.

Key words: Amygdala, hypothalamus, thalamus, Rafe nuclei, locus coeruleus, prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial cortex, individual risk factors, familial risk factors, socioeconomic risk factors, cultural risk factors.