Neuroscientists ask to study Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brain to find explanations for Boston Marathon attacks

Neuroscientists in Boston have asked for a chance to examine Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brain to try and find some explanations for the marathon attacks.

Dr. Michael Craig Miller argued in the Boston Globe that Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brain should be studied “as closely as our forensic experts have studied a few blocks along Boylston Street” – the scene of the double blasts on April 15.

He works as a psychiatrist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the city, where Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died and his younger brother, Dzhohkar Tsarnaev, 19, was treated after a stand-off with police.

Dr. Michael Craig Miller claimed that we are all keen for more details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s radicalization, and also the reported aggression and anger of the suspect.

The doctor acknowledged that many people are looking for explanations as to why the two men allegedly plotted and executed the attacks that killed three people and injured more than 260.

Dr. Michael Craig Miller claimed in the Boston Globe that Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brain is an “opportunity to examine important and interesting evidence that is there for the taking”.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a battle with armed police on April 19 but his body has yet to be claimed.

Dr. Michael Craig Miller said that Dr. Robert Cantu and Dr. Robert Stern of Boston University’s Center for the Study of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) have already expressed an interest in Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brain.

CTE is a degenerative brain disease that was initially discovered in boxers. And Dr. Micahel Craig Miller believes that Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s boxing career could have caused this or another condition in the suspect.

He concedes that: “We are not likely to agree about the meaning of what is found in the brain of the suspected bomber.”

Dr. Michael Craig Miller quoted Doctors Cantu and Stern who point out that any evidence of a brain disease “would not necessarily have been the cause of Tsarnaev’s premeditated, violent behavior”.

He argued that in the aftermath of the bombings we have concentrated on “the aspects of politics and culture, or of social and family life, that may breed violent behavior”.

Dr. Michael Craig Miller is asking to study Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brain as it “may teach us a small but important bit about the biology of violence”.