The Law and Neuroscience Blog

A Judge's Guide to Neuroscience

The Law and Neuroscience Project (along with the SAGE Center at UCSB) recently published A Judge's Guide to Neuroscience:  A Concise Introduction.  The useful manual contains articles by Marcus Raichle, Michael Gazzaniga, Adina Roskies, Read Montague, Scott Grafton, and others.  As always, happy reading!

NPR Three-peat on Neuroscience and Responsibility

Barbara Hagerty recently ran three pieces for NPR on the relationship between recent advances in science--especially MAOA research and work on psychopathy--and responsibility:

1. "A Neuroscientist Uncovers a Dark Secret"
2. "Inside a Psychopath's Brain"
3. "Can Your Genes Make You Murder?"

As always, happy reading!

Pardo and Patterson on Neurolaw

Michael Pardo and Dennis Patterson have a very interesting forthcoming piece in Neuroethics entitled "Minds, Brains, and Norms."  I was fortunate enough to be asked to provide some invited commentary along with Walter Glannon and Carl Craven.  Pardo and Patterson's lead article is now available for preview (see here) along with some of the invited commentary (see here and here).  Finally, their reply is also available here.  Thanks to Neil Levy and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong for inviting me to play along and for putting together this special issue!

Neurolaw Survey

Garret O'Connell sent me the following message:

"I am part of a neuroscience research group called SINAPSE. We are currently hosting a series of neuroethical debates about the potential impact of brain imaging on society with much the same aim as the LANP. To guide new policies and regulations over the use of brain imaging, we are seeking people to express their opinions and concerns about these issues in a short survey."

So, please drop by and respond to their survey!

United States v. Semrau

I have posted several things (see here and here) as of late about the two recent high profile court cases involving the admissibility of neural lie detection.  The case that has garnered the most attention is United States v. Semrau.  The United States Magistrate released his recommendation yesterday.  In short, neural lie detection was deemed to be inadmissible.   During the hearings, Marc Raichle and Peter Imrey--speaking independently as experts for the state and not as representatives of the LANP--testified against the admissibility of CEPHOS fMRI lie detection.  The court relied heavily on their testimony.  It also cited an article by LANP members Hank Greely and Judy Illes and another article by former LANP post-doctoral fellows Emily Murphy and Teneille Brown in reaching its decision.  

The complete recommendation can be found in the following attachment:

Download Semrau

Kiehl, Morse, and Others on Psychopathy and the Law

Radio Health Journal has a series of interesting interviews with Kent Kiehl, Stephen Morse, and others concerning psychopathy, neuroscience, and the law.  Go here to listen to the recording (beginning at the 2 minute mark).

Miller on Neural Lie Detection in the Courtroom

Greg Miller has recently written three pieces for Science Magazine on neural lie detection in the courtroom:

1. "fMRI Lie Detection Get's Its Day in Court"
2. "fMRI Lie Detection Hearing Ends, Decision Still to Come"
3. "Can Brain Scans Detect Lies"

As always, happy reading!

Detecting Individual Memories with Neuroimaging

Here is a recent article that readers of this blog will find of interest:

Rissman, J., Greely, H., and Wagner, A.D. (2001).  Detecting individual memories through the neural decoding of memory states and past experience.  PNAS.

The Stanford University press release can be found here.  Finally, the work has been featured in the popular press here and here.  As always, happy reading!

Neural Lie Detection in the News

Here are two recent pieces on neural lie detection:

WIRED:  "Lie Detection Brain Scan May Be Used in [US] Court for First Time."

NeuroKuz: "Lie Detection and Neurolaw: Do Brain Scans Have a Place in the Courtroom."

As always, happy reading!

Video on The Science Network

I just stumbled upon a great collection of videos on The Science Network.  Here are just a few of the ones that caught my eye:

1. Multi-level Brain Modeling (Part 1).
2. Multi-level Brain Modeling (Part 2).
3. Ramachandran on Neurons and Consciousness.
4. Patricia and Paul Churchland on Neurophilosophy.
5. Panel:  This Is Your Brain on the Law.
6. Panel:  Neurolaw and Neuropolitics.

As always, happy viewing!