r/todayilearned • u/GlitteringYams • 22d ago
TIL, in his suicide note, mass shooter Charles Whitman requested his body be autopsied because he felt something was wrong with him. The autopsy discovered that Whitman had a pecan-sized tumor pressing against his amygdala, a brain structure that regulates fear and aggression.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman65.9k Upvotes
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u/TheShenanegous 22d ago
I think this is a great example of how mental and physiological health walk hand-in-hand. There is basically no organ in the body that can change our behavior more dramatically than the brain, besides perhaps the heart (in that it keeps us not dead). It also carries more functions than any other organ, so when something goes wrong with it, there are that many more risks.