Kent Kiehl is a US neuroscientist with research interests in cognitive neuroscience, psychopathy and the ability to predict the behaviour of humans who behave unlawfully. Dr Kiehl uses brain imaging techniques to investigate mental illnesses, in particular, criminal psychopathy and psychotic disorders. In 2017, Dr Kiehl appeared on Morgan Freeman’s “The Story of God” series, where he revealed the results of an experiment on one of his most notorious patients.
The criminal, whose identity has been kept anonymous, is responsible for raping 24 women, as well as murdering three.
Dr Kiehl performed an MRI scan of the prisoner, alongside 800 other psychopaths to get a good idea of what an average brain would look like.
He explained: “In psychiatry, we have a way of assessing what we call psychopathy or psychopathic personality disorders.
“The lack of empathy, the impulse control, the poor planning – he scored 99 percent.
“So we performed an MRI scan and it looked pretty normal.
“But what we did was quantified all the different areas of his brain to try to understand how dense are they?”
Then, showing the cameras the results on his laptop, Dr Kiehl explained the differences to what he would expect to see.
He continued: “This area is the orbital frontal cortex and it’s very important for the formation of personality, the control of impulses and for regulating behaviour.
“These three bars shown here are from average inmates, other psychopaths and then his results in the blue.
“He really does have a different brain, so he does fit that 99 percent.
“He is, you know, one in a million – he is very rare.”
The prisoner went on to claim to Dr Kiehl that he does not feel the ability to control himself from impulse reactions.
He added: “I don’t see emotions like everybody else – I don’t feel them.
“I think I’m not wired the same as everybody else, I want to leave [prison], but since I did commit those crimes, I still have that capacity – society wouldn’t be safe.”