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Q: In Biology of Violence, you examine 20 years of research on the brain and on violence. What are the major conclusions you’ve found?

A: The biggest lesson we have learned from brain research is that violence, like all complex human behaviors, is the result of a developmental process, a lifelong interaction between the brain and the environment.

The way the brain keeps track of our experiences is through the language of chemistry. It’s an organic historian. These experiences get recorded as changes in the chemistry and the hormones of the nervous system and particularly the circuitry for emotion and our responses to stress.

When we come to a new interaction with a new person, we bring to that a neuro-chemical profile that is based on answers to some very important questions we’ve answered over a period of years: Is the world safe? Are people generally trustworthy? What do I know about this person from looking at her/him? What might I know from other sources?

That sets off some emotional reactions within us and that emotion, the chemistry of those feelings, is translated into our responses. Then that person reacts to us, and our emotional response to their reaction also changes brain chemistry a little bit. So after every interaction, we update our neuro-chemical profile of the world and of that relationship.

Q: So how does the interaction between brain and environment begin?

A: The amazing thing about the human brain is that it is so flexible, and it is very adaptable. We are born with some things. We don’t come with a blank slate. We have a human brain architecture; we have the desire to be social; we have the ability to use tools like language; and we have a basic way of interacting with the world. Some babies are very excitable, some are very laid back. And those differences in activity level, reactivity, and sensitivity are the basics of temperament. It’s what we bring to the situation. Then the way those characteristics fit with our particular environment goes on to shape that temperament and our behavior.

The most important programming goes on in the circuitry that governs emotion and response to the challenges of life, the stress. Our ability to shape those neuro-systems to fit our own particular environment helps us to adapt to a particular situation. So, if we find ourselves in an unsafe environment, we can adapt our behavior to survive. In comfortable, accommodating circumstances, our behavior changes in a different way.

Q: And do we have conscious control over changing that template?

A: As adults, with some outside help, we can look at our patterns of behavior and we can use conscious means to change and control some of those emotional responses. Children less so, because those systems are among the slowest in the brain to develop.

Q: By what age do those systems tend to be fully developed?

A:The parts of the brain that we like to think of as being rational or reasoning – able to work with ideas rather than simply react to the environment – take a good 20 years to develop. The prefrontal cortex, which is one of the best developed areas in human beings, is really important to representational thinking or the ability to manipulate ideas and thoughts. Those functions of the brain aren’t completely mature until early adulthood.

Q:And how does that relate to violence?

A:Well, that circuitry is overlaid and connected to the circuitry of emotions. So the two work hand in hand. Aggression, the ability to use force, is a natural part of the behavior repertoire of living things. Aggression is important. If we couldn’t be aggressive, we couldn’t defend ourselves, or our children. We wouldn’t be able to compete for jobs or compete in sports. But when that normal behavior becomes inappropriate, when it is directed toward the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong intensity, then it becomes violent and it becomes unacceptable.

When that happens, there is a change in the person’s ability to accurately determine whether something is a real threat. Either they are overreacting to benign stimuli, or they are not reacting to very real threats, like the threat of punishment. Something has gotten out of whack in their ability to understand and react correctly to their environment. The frontal cortex plays a big role in providing additional information to our emotional reactions, to clarifying those reactions by saying, “Wait a minute, that’s not really the way things are working. Step back and take a minute to think.”

If a person has come to believe that the world is against them, and they are overreacting to every little provocation, these violent reactions get beyond their ability to control because they are in survival mode.

Q:What then, would you say, is the process for violence prevention?

A: Childhood is a very important time for human beings if behavior is a result of developmental process, because the brain is growing most rapidly then. In particular, our decisions about how safe the world is and our learning about correct social behavior goes on in those early years.

I think one of the things we do least well in our society is to recognize the individuality of each child. I mentioned that children come into the world different in temperament, different in their ways of reacting to the world. Thus, a crucial step for parents and caregivers is to understand those differences in temperament and to learn to work with a child’s nature instead of against it.

I think it is also very important, from the point of view of prevention, to recognize high-risk situations for parents and children, and to intervene before there is trouble. We know from studies that have trained community members to be mentors to high-risk mothers and children that such programs can make a real difference in that relationship and help keep those early interactions on course and positive.

Finally, we need to recognize that when things go wrong, or when it seems a child may not be developing as well as they might socially, we need to intervene as soon as possible.

We spend a lot more time worrying about children’s intellectual development than we do about their social development, and even their physical development. Pediatricians weigh and measure and look at reflexes and heart rate, but ask fewer questions about social development, which is crucial. A lot of problems have their roots early in life and get kind of locked in place as a child gets older.

Q:Are there other implications for education in general from your research?

A: Well, speaking again to the individuality of each child, we have a one-size-fits- all approach to education, and to intervention. I think we ought to look more closely at the specific needs of particular kinds of children.

We know that if we just look at the violence issue, there are different patterns of violent behavior. Some of the exciting new research shows that there are actually physiological differences that are associated with those different patterns. For example, there is the over-reactive pattern and there is also the under-reactive pattern.

Underreactive kids don’t seem to develop an emotional empathy, and, as they grow up, may be called “cold.” They really are different physiologically with lower resting heart rates, lower galvanic skin responses (lie detector test). Their emotional responses are lower, so it’s hard to learn rules. If you can’t attach emotion and feeling to your behavior and consequences, it is very hard to make the kinds of priorities and decisions that will allow you to behave correctly.

But that problem is very different from overreacting. For the kids that are overreacting, the challenge is to get them to slow down, to be able to begin to engage those conscious thinking processes. But for the kids who underreact, the challenge is to keep them connected and to reinforce their learning of social behaviors, since they have an innate problem with “getting it.”

Q:What about the school environment in general? Is there something we can do for everybody?

A: Let’s just talk about one issue that has sprung up after Columbine, and that is bullying. I think that bullying has been overlooked for a long time in schools. It’s seen as “just the way life is,” or adults say, “I had to grow up that way.” But your child is spending 6-7 hours a day in that environment, and to be on the receiving end of any violence on a daily basis is very destructive. I think that is something schools have not paid enough attention to, even as they have tried to implement violence prevention and conflict resolution programs. They need to be more aware of the subtle bullying that goes on. We’re not going to stop all aggression between kids, but ought to be aware of more of the tormenting, teasing, badgering, and threatening – and we should step in early to intervene.

Q: Do those kinds of bullying, tormenting, and badgering change the neuro-system of the victim and the tormentor?

A: Sure, because every time bullies act aggressively, that changes their brain chemistry a little bit. That helps to reinforce the idea that the world isn’t safe and that the response to that is to beat up on someone else.

It’s also destructive to the person being bullied, in the same way as living in an abusive home environment might be. Some studies have suggested that as many as 30% of kids are involved, either as bullies or victims in their school career, in some of these interactions. Victims also tend to get isolated or ostracized as a result of being on the receiving end of bullying violence, and isolation is a very strong environment-selecting factor for violence. So that’s another place where schools, and to a lesser degree parents, can watch for signs of trouble. A kid who is becoming isolated from their social group is a kid who is at risk.

Q: Is there one piece of research you would like to see in red letters for every teacher and parent to read?

A: Yes. Kids are different, and what’s important for their development is not what they are, but how that matches up with their environment. Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas have created a wonderful body of research about this fit between temperament and parenting.

Q: Is there anything we have missed or anything with which you would like to leave us?

A:The past informs the present but it doesn’t have to control the future.

Many times people say something is “biological” to mean it is a disease, something wrong, something we can’t change – and that’s not true. The brain remains plastic [changeable] throughout life. Obviously, it gets very hard to change deeply ingrained behavior patterns, but biology doesn’t mean we give up on people. It means that by working with human nature we can make changes in behavior.