Alan Young makes the case that as we learn more about the brain, it is likely that persons who commit terrible crimes, like Robert Pickton, will not be held responsible for their acts because we will find a biological basis for their behaviour. Such statements are based on the assumption that our brains are somehow independent from who we are. Yet brain scientists have discovered that our identity and actions come from the interplay between brain and environment.


Concert musicians will have enhanced structure and function in the parts of the brain that control how they play their instrument and how they hear music. Elite athletes not only have a highly developed muscular and cardiovascular system, but their brains will be fine-tuned to move their bodies in ways that most of us cannot. The exchange between the brain and the environment sculpts the person.

Young's commentary reflects the mind-body debate: whether the more "human" functions like memory, morality and consciousness are somehow separate from the brain biology that controls basic functions like seeing, hearing and walking. As with most dichotomous issues, the truth is somewhere in between. Biology provides the potential, but behaviour is a complicated interaction between biology and environment.


There is little doubt that some brain insults make us unable to control our actions, as can be the case in some diseases and focal damage.

However, it is vital to realize that finding a biological correlate for a particular behaviour does not necessarily remove personal responsibility. We are as much a product of our brains as our brains are a product of us.

Anthony Randal McIntosh, Toronto