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While I certainly can’t say that I understand either the information presented in this selection I am posting today from the book I am reading, Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence – (1998) by Robin Karr-Morse, Meredith S. Wiley, I can say that I find this passage intriguing. I am not familiar with “the role of the neurotransmitter serotonin in aggressive behavior” as I usually come across it in reference to the ‘montage’ of pharmaceutical concoctions that are prescribed to treat ‘depression’ by increasing/enhancing available serotonin in a ‘depressed’ person’s body.
I am reading this book thinking about my mother. Nobody will ever know the exact combinations of early infant and childhood distress, neglect, trauma and otherwise malevolent treatment she received that turned her into such a violent, vicious, and chronic infant-child abuser (with me being her target). I do suspect, however, that much of the information the authors present in this book do apply to her.
Even though I am not a violent person, the trauma my mother inflicted upon me from birth through age 18 affected the development of all the systems in my body, as well.
The following comes from a subsection titled PEASE PORRIDGE HOT, PEASE PORRIDGE COLD that is contained in chapter two from Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence (I added bold type within text below for emphasis):
“It was only a game. Even though it was for science – it was only a game. The first person who hit the button after the lights flashed got to zap his partner with an electric current. The winner could pick a charge ranging from one, a light twinge, to eight, a jolt of pain. These were college students at McGill University in Montreal. They usually picked low dosages of electricity, giving what they got, exchanging only level of pain they received. That was before the drink. Scientists deliberately raised the aggression level of participants by giving them a dose of amino acids that lowered their levels of the brain chemical serotonin. Soon the game changed. Volunteers began zapping their partners with higher and higher numbers in spite of receiving lower charges themselves. Next, the students were given another snack, this time a dose of tryptophan, an essential ingredient for the brain to produce serotonin. As the serotonin levels rose, the choice of painful jolts diminished. An Orwellian experiment, perhaps, but proof positive that the manipulation of neurochemicals can alter levels of aggression. [see work of Ron Kotulak)
“Serotonin reducing chemicals such as certain amino acids lower the threshold [meaning ‘they let more aggression in’] for aggressive tendencies. In rodents, serotonin-reducing drugs were first viewed as aphrodisiacs because the rats became very sexually active under their influence. But aggression soon followed. Handlers were bitten and other rats were attacked just for coming close – behaviors previously unseen in the animals.
“The role of the neurotransmitter serotonin in aggressive behavior has been under study since the mid 1970s when Marie Asberg, at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, observed the linkage between low serotonin and violent suicides, suicides involving guns, knives, ropes, or jumping from high places. Soon criminals with a history of violence were discovered to also have low levels of serotonin. But the effect of serotonin can only be understood in relation to a counter-balancing neurotransmitter, noradrenaline [norepinephrine].
“While serotonin is known to be key to modulating impulsive behaviors at the neocortical level of the brain, noradrenaline is the alarm hormone designed to alert the system to respond to danger. Together they have a teeter-totter type of relationship: in normal people, serotonin is higher during sleep and decreases during wakefulness, while noradrenaline is higher during wakefulness and lower during sleep. The balance between the two is the key to normal function. For most of us, there is a balance, enabling us to react in reasonable ways. But, as with the McGill students, our functional levels can be altered, at least temporarily. Alcohol and extremely stressful environments can have similar effects to the students’ initial drink of amino acids. When these exposures occur to a developing fetus or infant, the levels of serotonin and noradrenaline are just being built, shaping lifetime patterns.
“Violent behavior is roughly of two types: impulsive and premeditated. Most acts of violence are impulsive. “Cold-blooded” pr premeditated acts are far less common and are typically enacted by a very different personality than the “hot-blooded” crime. When environmental experiences early in life cause noradrenaline levels to be too high and serotonin levels too low, the result, in the presence of later emotional triggers, may be impulsive violence. Conversely, very low levels of noradrenaline together with low levels of serotonin result in underarousal, which may generate an appetite for high-risk behaviors to achieve arousal, setting the stage for predatory violence or premeditated crimes. Interestingly, very high levels of serotonin are not a means of counteracting this effect. Excessively high serotonin levels result not in well-being, but in rigidity or obsessive-compulsive behavior, like Lady MacBeth’s repetitive hand washing. The balance of neurochemicals in either scenario is thought to be set primarily by early experience [Google search: ‘Perry incubated in terror’ for the author’s reference here – first link on Google is the document]. When babies develop in an atmosphere of terror or trauma, these neurochemicals can be called upon to enable them to survive. But that which enables survival may also create permanent and lethal imbalances.
“Low levels of serotonin may be the result of a genetic error. A single gene inherited by some people from their fathers results in an inability to adequately convert tryptophan from common foods into serotonin. The individual inheriting this gene may have no problem unless there is an additional stressor, primarily alcohol. In affected individuals, alcohol briefly raises, then drastically lowers, serotonin levels. At the latter point, the individual is prone to acting out aggressively. This gene is common – affecting 40 percent of the Swedish population tested at random [see same Perry reference above]. With 48 percent of the homicides in the United States committed under the influence of alcohol, the role of this interaction is clearly of concern.
“Normal serotonin and noradrenaline levels are extremely important to balanced functioning. Without realizing it, our culture is creating more and more individuals with an imbalance in this delicate equation in the brain. Alcohol, drugs, and other toxic exposures such as lead are being implicated in damage to the genes responsible for these neurochemicals. So are conditions after birth such as abusive, terrifying, or war-torn environments, in which impulsive or reactive behaviors are essential to survival. Researchers suspect that conditions of child neglect, child abuse, gang warfare, and domestic violence are – without our awareness – biologically, as well as socially, feeding the cycle of violent crime. As Ron Kotulak stated in his series on the brain:
“Underlying the scientific quest, which has revealed genetic and environmental links to abnormal brain chemistry, is the growing suspicion that society may unwittingly be feeding the nation’s epidemic of murder, rape and other criminal acts by making childhood more dangerous than ever.”
“Abuse and neglect in the first years of life have a particularly pervasive impact. Prenatal development and the first two years are the time when the genetic, organic, and neurochemical foundations for impulse control are being created [the first 33 months of life]. It is also the time when the capacities for rational thinking and sensitivity to other people are being rooted – or not – in the child’s personality.” (pages 42-45, Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence)
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OTHER RELATED TOPIC LINKS:
How Trauma Affects the Brain
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See study here: Difference in serotonergic and noradrenergic regulation of human social behaviours
“Noradrenaline was related to increased social engagement and cooperation and a reduction in self-focus….serotonin may be associated with protection of the self from the negative consequences of social interaction.”
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Functional coupling of serotonin and noradrenaline transporters.
On serotonin and noradrenaline: “Re-uptake of the neurotransmitters serotonin and noradrenaline out of the synaptic cleft is mediated by selective transporter proteins, the serotonin transporter and the noradrenaline transporter respectively. Both are integral membrane proteins that are have a high degree of homology and represent members of a larger neurotransmitter transporter superfamily.”
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BOOK: Balancing Serotonin and Norepinephrine Levels
By John Allocca
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Mechanisms underlying the long-term behavioral effects of traumatic experience in rats: the role of serotonin/noradrenaline balance and NMDA receptors. (2007)
“Traumatic stressors induce long-lasting changes in behavior. It is believed that all three glutamatergic, serotonergic and noradrenergic neurotransmission play a role in the development of such behavioral changes, but their relative importance and relationship is poorly understood. We have shown previously that a single exposure of rats to electric shocks induces social avoidance for about 10 days…. Noteworthy, the brain noradrenaline/serotonin ratio correlated negatively with shock-induced social avoidance, suggesting that the ratio rather than absolute levels are important in this respect.”
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Why Some Kids Turn Violent
“For millions of American children, the world they encounter is relentlessly menacing and hostile. So, with astounding speed and efficiency, their brains adapt and prepare for battle. Cells form trillions of new connections that create the chemical pathways of aggression; some chemicals are produced in overabundance, some are repressed.
In studies with children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders, low serotonin levels was the single most accurate predictor of which youngsters would go on to commit more violent crimes or suicide. Conversely, high levels of noradrenaline were the chemical signature of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The rising tide of abuse and neglect of children occurs during the critical period when children are developing what is called “moral emotions.” These are emotions that are rooted in brain chemistry and are established in the first three years of life. The development of impulse control occurs at a time when sensitivity toward others is also being rooted in a child’s personality.
The brain’s alarm network, called the locus coeruleus, sits at the base of the brain and sends out noradrenaline pathways to other brain centers that control heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, emotions, and motivation.
When the locus coeruleus finds itself in an uncontrollable, threatening environment, it sets its noradrenaline gauge on high. Over the pathways come surges of the stress hormone that keep the body in a constant state of readiness—heart racing, blood pressure high, easy to startle, quick to blow up. These are the PTSD children.”
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HOW STRESS AND POOR NUTRITION CAN CAUSE POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION by Dean Raffelock
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From the International Guide to the World of Alternative Mental Health
Guidebook for Preventing Migraine Headaches, Depression, Insomnia, and Bipolar Syndrome by Dr. John A. Allocca
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GUT HEALTH – Our Second Brain
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Seratonin: The chemistry of Well-Being
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Neurological Control — Neurotransmitters
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Pediatric Bipolar Disorder: A Brain Illness
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DEVELOPING A SOCIAL NEUROSCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING OF YOUTH by E. Koller
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SEE ALSO:
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Stop the Storm 