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Jazmine Alfahoum
Professor Brad Stiles
ENGL 50
April 9, 2013
Zombies: To Kill or Not to Kill
Living Dead, Walkers, The Undead, Zombies: no matter what the name is, these words
bring a vivid image to mind. Slow moving monsters with discolored skin and gruesome wounds
are what I picture when I hear those words. With the zombie genre being so big today, there are
many types of zombies to choose from. The popular slow moving, disoriented, impulsive zombie
is the one I am going to focus on today. This type of zombie is common in shows and movies
like The Walking Dead and Land of The Dead. The zombies in both of these can be killed one
way and one way only: destroy the brain. Ever wondered why that is the only way to kill a
zombie? Maybe it is because they aren’t exactly dead at all, but their brains are just misfiring,
causing them to become flesh-eating monsters. With this new discovery, it would be inhumane to
kill a zombie for any reason other than self-defense.
The modern day zombie was born in 1968 to writer and director George A. Romero.
Since then his living dead have morphed into a phenomenon. The word zombie is known
worldwide and either brings on a sense of fear or excitement. With saying like “Keep Calm and
Kill Zombies” it’s easy to see that there is a sense of excitement circling the subject. Picture a
real apocalypse, with real monsters attacking. The excitement would easily be replaced with
adrenaline and fear--fear for ourselves and the people we care about, fear for what the world is
about to become. When people are scared they act first and think later. Mob mentality sets in
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and they start to do what others around them are doing. In this situation that would save the lives
of the uninfected, if they are killing for their own safety.
Dr. Steven C. Schlozman is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical
School; he discovered that a zombie’s brain is the cause of the odd behavior. Their neurobiology
is so severely damaged that it is causing them to crave human flesh. Dr. Schlozman calls this
zombie plague Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome, or ANSD. According to
Schlozman, ANSD affects the following sections of the brain: the frontal lobe, the amygdala and
anterior cingulate cortex, the cerebellum and the basal ganglia, the ventromedial hypothalamus,
and the neurons.
The part of the brain that is involved with "executive functioning,” enabling us to think
carefully and solve problems in an abstract way, is the frontal lobe. Unfortunately, there's not
much going on there if someone has the misfortune of being afflicted with living deadness. But
we do know that zombies can see us and sense us. Schlozman concludes that zombies possess
just enough frontal lobe activity to "listen" to the thalamus, through which sensory input is
processed. But the frontal lobe function most relevant to understanding zombie behavior is the
control of "impulsivity.” Without a functioning frontal lobe, a zombie is driven entirely by base
emotions - such as rage - that are housed in the primitive parts of our brain, notably the
amygdala. The balance is maintained by the anterior cingulate cortex, which modulates and
dampens the excitability of the amygdala as it talks to the frontal lobe. So, when the amygdala
gets all stirred up by fear, anger or lust, the anterior cingulate cortex steps on it a little bit, giving
the frontal lobe time to think everything through before it sends signals toward the motor cortex
and we act upon those impulses. A zombie would have a dysfunctional anterior cingulate cortex,
rendering it unable to modulate feelings of anger. This would result in hyper-aggression.
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Science may once and for all settle the debate over whether "the infected" in 28 Days
Later could be classified as zombies. Schlozman says "no," observing that "the infected" possess
"some sort of higher cortical function going on that allows them to hunt humans." Moreover, the
fake zombies in I am Legend exhibit fluidity of motion. They can run, jump, climb and quickly
change direction, all things a Romero zombie is incapable of performing. Zombies suffer from
cerebellar and basal ganglia dysfunction. Those are the parts of the brain that make fluidity of
motion possible. The basal ganglia helps with coordinated movement and the cerebellum helps
with balance. In fact, the National Institutes of Health has done research on cerebellar
degeneration (such as ataxia), when compared the symptoms match the familiar gait of the living
dead: "a wide-legged, unsteady, lurching walk, usually accompanied by a back and forth tremor
in the trunk of the body…"
This is recent, cutting-edge research in the field of neuroscience. Schlozman describes
mirror neuron theory as a "neurobiological model for empathy, which suggests, in a very hopeful
way, that we might be wired to connect with one another." Regions of the brain are recruited in
response to social interactions in which we watch and thus experience the experiences of the
"other." But, Schlozman asks, what if the things we're fighting have brains that are incapable of
connecting? In response, we disconnect from each other. A veteran of the Battle of Yonkers in
the book World War Z says: "Shock and Awe! But what if the enemy can't be shocked and
awed? Not just won't, but biologically can't?" At the Battle of Yonkers, the humans hit the
zombie horde with everything they've got. But the zombies keep coming. They don't look scared,
they don't look excited, and they don't look enraged. And that actually freaks out the humans
more than anything else, prompting the humans to turn on each other. Schlozman suggests that
mirror neurons also help explain the popularity of the zombie genre among the living. While
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watching these movies, "we like the permission to look at these things that look human - but
aren't human - and have utter and complete permission to blow their heads off." In other words,
we get off on the thrill of guiltless violence; we enjoy a brief vacation from empathy.
This temporary loss of empathy is what is concerning. In the 2004 remake of Dawn of the
Dead, the living are trapped inside a mall due to the hordes of zombies surrounding the building.
When they get bored they go up to the roof top and proceed to kill zombies for entertainment.
These people have zero regard for the lives they have just ended. Had it been someone they knew
personally, then it may have been a much different scene. Self-defense laws in the United States,
vary from state to state. The general rule makes an important distinction between the use of nondeadly and deadly force. A person may use non-deadly force to prevent imminent injury.
However, a person may not use deadly force unless that person is in reasonable fear of serious
injury or death. Some states also include a duty to retreat, when deadly force may only be used if
the person is unable to safely retreat. Sitting on a roof shooting at something that isn’t actively
doing anything doesn’t qualify as self-defense in the United States. These laws are put in place
to protect and prevent mistakes and accidently deaths from taking place.
Killing a human with ANDS for any reason other than self-defense is just inhumane. We
have laws in this country set up to protect the innocent. These people did not choose to be
infected. They had lives filled with friends and loved ones that were stolen from them. Killing
anyone out of boredom or excitement is murder no matter how we paint it. Despite the lack of
authority to enforce laws during these crises, our ethics, morals, and values are still with us.
Acting out of instinct may be great when danger is present, but when safe it is not ok to turn off
our humanity and check out. Because when things get better, we will regret every time we pulled
the trigger or killed an innocent.
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Works Cited
Dawn of the Dead. Dir. Zack Snyder. Strike Entertainment, 2004. DVD
I Am Legend. Dir. Francis Lawrence. Warner Bros, 2007. DVD
NINDS Cerebellar Degeneration Information Page. Office of Communications and Public
Liaison National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke National Institutes of
Health, May. 2010. Web
Schlozman, Steven. The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse. New York
City: Grand Central Publishing, 2012. Print.
Brooks, Max. World War Z. London: Duckworth, 2007. Print.