Next Gen News

In his difficult book on biological causes of crime, the neuroscientist tells how he chose between two suspects after suffering holiday robbery in Turkey

It was the summer of 1989, in Bodrum, a beautiful coastal city in southwestern Turkey, bathed in sunshine, history and nightlife. I was on vacation and had been a long day. I took the bus from Heraklion, where I was named the second worst case of food poisoning I've ever had in my life, including two days in bed vomiting, with grueling pain.

was hot that July night and could not sleep. He had kept the windows open to try to stay calm. I wandered around, being a bit sick and not sleeping - in and out of consciousness, my girlfriend slept in a bed in the room. It was just after three o'clock when I noticed a stranger standing in front of me. At that time, I was teaching a class on criminal behavior, and I tell my students that when they realized an intruder in your home, must pretend to be asleep. Ninety percent of the time, the thieves just wanted to take the goods and then leave. They go - and then call 911. You do not take risks and have a fighting chance to get their business back without a violent confrontation.

So I did when I saw the intruder in my bed? I fought. In milliseconds, it took my visual cortex to interpret the dark character and report it to the amygdala, which kicks off the fight or flight, I jumped out of my bed. In little more than a second, I instinctively attracted the intruder. I was on autopilot.

sensory information reaches the amygdala, twice as fast, because it makes the frontal lobe. So before I could not hold back aggressive frontal cortex, amygdala response, which had already stepped menacingly toward the thief. This in turn activates the system fight or flight of the intruder. Unfortunately for me, his instinct to also comes in.

next thing I knew I was beating so fast it was as if the man had four fists. He hit me so hard in the head, I saw a ray of white light flash before my eyes. Also hit me in the throat. Seemed to strike anywhere. I was thrown violently against the door. I felt the door handle and I must admit that the idea popped into my mind escape. But at that moment I heard the screams of my friend struggle with the man. She finally ended up with bruises on her arms, but I think it was defensive wounds and that the intruder just wanted to keep her calm. Seeing them struggle instinctive reaction initially come to me when I was in bed. I jumped back and managed to push him out the open window.

At that moment, I felt an immediate sense of security and relief. But the euphoria evaporated after turning on the light switch and I saw the blood running down my chest. I tried to scream, but what came out of my mouth was a growling moan.

completely unknown to me in the middle of this contest was not a coincidence that the attacker holding a knife. Very long, with a red handle and a blade of 6 inches, it turned out. But I was lucky. As I mentioned her arm strokes, cheap knife blade was broken, leaving only a few millimeters of metal left on the handle. So when I tried to cut my throat, the damage was much less than it could have been.