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Teenage gang members will have their brains scanned in an experiment to find out why they are so violent.
Scores of “hoodies” will be tested on London streets as scientists attempt to prove their brains have been scarred by years of abuse and neglect.
The research could revolutionise the way extremely violent children and teenagers are treated by the authorities and provide a blueprint for how to integrate them back into society.
Most of the youngsters helped by the charity are homeless and some have been forced into drug running, gangs, or prostitution.
Scientists will perform an Electroencephalography
scan in which 256 electrodes are placed on each child's head to measure electrical impulses
coming out of the brain cells.
They will determine how much stress each child
is under by measuring cortisol levels in the blood and saliva, and take their heart and respiration rate.
The tests will be performed on teenagers aged 13 to 17. Researchers will write to the children's parents giving them the opportunity to opt out.
Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company, is backing the study. She said: “We need to change the natural argument that these children are morally flawed.
We are trying to show that their brains are different and they are impaired in their ability to calm themselves down.
“We think their brain has been altered by the amount of violence they have been exposed to.”
Peter Fonagy, Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis at UCL and chief executive of the Anna Freud Centre, is leading the research. He said: “This is very exciting. These are very hard-toreach young people who have been traumatised and about whom scientists know very little.
“We want to set up a mobile laboratory in a van with Kids Company staff as lab assistants. We are looking for biomarkers that will show the extreme stress these people are under.”
One of the experiments will involve the child being shown a photograph of an angry face while wearing the electrodes.
The brains of those children who have been abused are expected to show increased activity in the pre-frontal cortex, the area associated with inhibition. It becomes more active when people are trying to suppress violent instincts.
Children who have not been abused will be able to look at the face without feeling anger, so their brains are not expected to show this activity.
Dr Fonagy said: “A child who has been abused will have an incredibly powerful emotional arousal that they are desperately trying to inhibit. This is a neural signature for maltreatment.”
Ms Batmanghelidjh developed the theory that children's brains can be damaged by neglect or abuse after interviewing 400 youngsters at Kids
Company.
She said: “I believe many children living in our city are exposed to the same level of violence as war veterans. They are being traumatised and breaking down. But the point is that this is reparable and reversible.”
Scientists need to raise £250,000 before aiming to start the research in the autumn.
Reader views (32)
I am absolutely disgusted by the ignorance and prejudice displayed in the majority of these comments
- Samar, London
I think this article (and many of the responses to it) misses the point of this research. As a professional in the field, using EEG to measure specific brain activity in children who suffer from emotional and behavioural disorders is extremely useful. Whilst this article focuses on 'violent behaviour' resulting from abuse and neglect, it important to remember that in most cases, other problems arise such as psychiatric disorders and self-harming behaviours. It is not about finding an 'excuse' for 'antisocial' or 'criminal' behaviour; it is about identifying the cognitive processes that lead to these behaviours, but also psychiatric difficulties. By doing this, one can gain a far better picture of the state of the child and apply the best intervention(s), whether that is educational, psychological, in or outside of secure care. It is easy to 'blame' social problems for their behaviours (e.g. parents, drugs, upbringing etc); but that is a cop-out argument with no substance. We need to look at the details, and whether we like it or not, the way information is processed in our brains is what is responsible for all behaviour. It is where we will find the ultimate answers to enact behaviour change.
- Adam, London
- Andy, London Well said they are so quick to kick the already down
- Gary, Brentwood
I think for all the shame and disgust at the treatment and living conditions of children and older in third world countries, it is disgusting to read the ignorant and pathetically one-dimensional views in reaction to this article of how we should treat and perceive the lives of the yoot in our cities (and towns may I add) in our own country where the problems are as bad, if not worse. The class divide and cynical attitudes of too many in this amazingly diverse and emotionally powerful nation astounds me - try mentoring one of these kids and see for yourself that there is empathy and incredible resilience that needs to be nurtured in a positive way that ensures they don't live the lives of their 'messed up' carers. I kid you not, in one way or another, their immensely negative lives in turn causes an effect that will in some way affect your life in a negative way - sort it out and 'love your neighbour' - stop the blaming..... the blame comes from your pathetic reliance of the media as your source of knowledge. Now the underlying racism in 'us' is another reason why some of you out there just can't change and are so narrow-minded - If only you could tap into your sub conscious and experience real life (a close relative dying for example) you'll see that there is so much more to a human being than their colour, background and habits - we need to change our perception of these yoots otherwise society as a whole will suffer - and that means you
- Andy, London
Its not scans that needed , stop the immigration and that will stop the crime
- Denise G, Norfolk
Peer pressure and exposure to slums. These kids are products of the society they are exposed to everyday the same as everyone else. Exposure over many generations condenses the issue into what we have now human vermin but they are not to blame they are just a by-product of anti evolution created by the upper and middle classes pretending they do not exist or treating them like dogs, read the comments you fools have posted and yet you are the ones to blame.
- Gary, Brentwood
Waste of time. They won't even find a brain, let alone a root cause....
- Nowan King, London
Feckless parents?
When you can have up to three generations of a family all signing on the dole and voting Labour with absolutely no intention of working or contributing towards society, the utter utter boredom and lack of purpose in life would drive anyone to violence.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
Ah, Barry1858 and the incredible "Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" argument, 90% eh? And who came up with this incredible figure? How does that work exactly? They have to commit burglary because they're agitated? I'm sorry guv, I was only selling drugs because I was hyperactivate. I 'ad a bit ov a twinge so I went and murdered my next door neighbor whilst high on crack but it waz my ADHD, honest. Does ADHD remove all morals and responsibility for one's actions? I think not, what an utter load of tosh!
- Bob, Cheam
Make the vans airtight, run a hose from the exhaust pipe into the back of the van, job's a good 'un.
- Bob, London
90% of the prison population suffer from ADHD, the worst manifestation of which is unspeakable violence without a scintilla of remorse.
Next question.....
- Barry1858, Welwyn
Any scanner will have to be bloody high resolution, way out of the budget of most research budgets to even find a brain in these pin-heads
- Steve, Brentford
What these animal scum need is lashes and long stiff sentences in prison. Its so sickening the leniency with which these animals are treated.
- Vivek, London
It think that any scans on lowlife gang members will show zero brain activity.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
Keith Lonsdale - we should scan your brain to see if its biological mater, or a tin machine that trots out a set of far right, one dimensional, "its all the bloody liberals fault" garbage to everything it sees..
- Nick, Islington, London
Brain scans....they should be lobotomised.....
- Alan, East London
It seems a strange type of scientific study where the results and conclusions have been determined before the study has even begun.
- Steve, Bromley, UK
What an absolute load of pointless garbage!
The reason for the explosion in street crime and gang culture is very simple; the infestation of out public services and institutions by politically-correct left-liberal apologists.
They are responsible for making those enaged in crome and ASB that it is everyones' fault except their own. They are the ones who make endless excuses about violent criminal behaviour. They are the ones who have presided over the descent of our once robust criminal justice system into complete farce.
Thanks in large part to the unprecedented proliferation of political correctness, sponsored by the current Britain-hating government, we have a country where the only rights that count are those of criminals and special status minority groups. We have become a laughing stock on the world stage.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
I agree with William, ban 'e' number foods and I might add also make divorces shameful, like in the old days, that way there'll be less broken homes
- Matt K, Ware
More socialist garbage, looking for reasons why they are violent.
It's because there is very little deterrent, and also to many do-gooders wanting to try and "understand" them.
Most decent people don't want to understand them, we are fed up of excuses, lock them up.
- P I Staker, London
Reuben, perhaps we should scan your brain to establish why you are confusing the issue of street gangs - which this story is about - with MPs?
- Jock, London
Stick these wasters in a boot camp and give them some routine and discipline...or get send them to do some hard labour and get some good use out of them.
- Tony, Barnet
While they have got them, perhaps they could do quick lobotomy at the same time?
- Carl, London
I do wish they would scan MPs' brains to try and establish why they are so dishonest.
- R.F., Yorks, UK
Two reasons for their behaviour.
Lack of respect for others, including themselves.
They have no fear of being punished as even if they do get caught someone in authority always has an excuse for them.
- Heather, Essex, England
We live in a country that considers the Mirror, Sun and News of the World to be newspapers. What else would you expect from this dumbed down populace. We are not all Max Clifford dummies. Some of us would be ashamed to read these rags.
- Never Eat Tuna Again, London
No use scanning the brains of MP's.
A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.
- Reuben Camara, Republic of Morecambe, UK
I know how these street gangs feel about their brains being altered by the violence they have been exposed to etc; I was born in the middle of WW2 and my father and uncles also suffered violence killing people at that time; my poor old grandfather suffered much the same thing in his short life in the Navy etc.
God help all those other generations long before them; what with Great Britain building empires across the world, and fighting constant wars with those Europeans as well, since the beginning of time.
But none of this compares with today’s youth and street gang culture; and any modern educated expert will tell you that youth problems and street gangs are a 21 century phenomenon and were never known before in the entire human history of violence, war, and slaughter etc.
To the educated experts I would say: Yes examine all our brains while you are at it, and don’t stop at street gang violence; look into MPs brains, look into Bankers brains, and find out why those with the most, still rob others for more etc.
I know I was caned at school many times, [ mostly deserved I add] and that was violence against my human rights in todays UK; but we were told to be a man, and don’t be a cry-baby, and funny enough I never joined a street gang, I just went boxing to learn how to defend myself from others that might want to cane me or give me a good hiding.
My life, and the lives of all those generations long before me; would have been so much nicer and easier, if we ha
- Mickinlondon, london.
Start with the foods that are consumes 'you are what you eat', the chemicals that are ingested that are in a direct route to the brain needs to be researched.
- William, Hay~Heath UK
Does this remind anyone of clockwork orange? Don't get me wrong, i'd love to find out why are proportion of our yoot are feral with no morals.
- Tom, London
Are they scanning them to try and find a brain or simply to prove that they have a thought process?
- Bob, Cheam
Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!
What goes around comes around!
- Ron, Liverpool
