"Cousin Lizzie" was acquitted of murdering her parents in 1893.

What if you’re a neuroscientist who’s been studying the brains of violent psychopaths for 20 years and then you find out your brain and genetics are just like theirs? That’s the situation UC Irvine professor Jim Fallon found himself in after an offhand remark made by a great-grandmother led him to look into his own family’s historical predisposition for violence. Even spookier than finding out that he is a relative of Lizzie Borden, Fallon discovered that his brain activity and genes are identical to that of vicious criminals. Only a happy, loving childhood may have saved him from his natural tendencies.

Fallon’s story is told by Barbara Bradley Hagerty in “A Neuroscientist Uncovers a Dark Secret,” part of an NPR series about brain science and criminology. (Thanks to A&L Daily for pointing me in the direction of this piece.) An excerpt:

“Jim Fallon says he had a terrific childhood; he was doted on by his parents and had loving relationships with his brothers and sisters and entire extended family. Significantly, he says this journey through his brain has changed the way he thinks about nature and nurture. He once believed that genes and brain function could determine everything about us. But now he thinks his childhood may have made all the difference.

‘We’ll never know, but the way these patterns are looking in general population, had I been abused, we might not be sitting here today,’ he says.”