Militarizing Neuroscience

Posted on 29 November 2011 by rwoo

There is no question that in the future, neuroscience will be able to be weaponized. Given the vast advancements in neuroscience, the possibilities are frightening. DARPA, or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has already begun to blur the line between human and machine. One of their projects allows Department of Defense analysts to process images with blindingly fast speeds. Other projects in nano-neuroscience, pharmaceuticals, neuro-imaging, and cyber-neurosystems could be used for “offensive capabilities”. The future of neuroscience in military must be progress with careful oversight.

A paper, “Neurotechnology in National Security, Intelligence, and Defense“, illustrates many of the potential dangers of weaponizing neuroscience. One scenario the paper poses mirrors the plot of futuristic video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In the game, nanomachines have the ability to monitor and modify soldiers’ brains to enhance performance. Other scenarios include enhancing brain power by combining machine and brain and mind reading using neuro-imaging techniques. The possibility of neuropharmacological drugs is another frightening possibility. These drugs could potentially control the mind, instantly kill, or paralyze enemies.

In response to these potentially dangerous applications of neuroscience, Curtis Bell (Oregon Health & Science University) wrote a pledge similar to the Hippocratic Oath for neuroscientists “to refuse to participate in [...] violations of human rights or international law.” This pledge aims to limit and prevent the use of neuroscience in torture and war. It is acts like Bell’s pledge that will allow the amazing and innovative advancements in neuroscience to be used for medical and social purposes rather than militarization. However, one cannot be naive and must realize that others will inevitably desire to use these advancements for negative purposes.

CXW (Corrections Corp. of America)

Posted on 27 November 2011 by wsavoie

In their annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corporation of America had this to say about their view of the future:

The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.

This is what a free market solution to crime prevention creates: vested intrest in the status quo.

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2011/11/bearish-on-private-prison-stocks-if.html

The London Riots & the Brains Behind Them

Posted on 27 November 2011 by mfwu

On August 6, 2011, two days after the shooting of Mark Duggan by the Metropolitan Police, what started off as a peaceful protest in response to the police handling of the shooting and a call for justice turned into a full-scale riot in Tottenham, North London. The city descended into chaos as over 300 rioters battled police using makeshift weapons and petrol bombs, set fire to police cars, double-decker buses, and shops, and rampantly looted. The riot resulted in 26 police officers injured, several citizens hospitalized, and 55 rioters arrested. The riot in Tottenham was only the first in a series that popped up across London, as similar disturbances in Peckham, Battersea, Birmingham, and Salfrod sprung up in the following days. As a response to the unrest, the government funded a study by the National Centre for Social Research to look into the motivation of and triggers behind young people’s participation in the riots.

Interviewing over 200 people primarily from the areas affected, the resulting study found that there was not one simple explanation but instead, the young people, both participants and non-participants, were influenced by a series of “nudge” and “tug” factors. Researchers were able to categorize situational, personal, family/community and societal factors that either helped to “nudge” them into getting involved (facilitators) and others which helped to “tug” them away from involvement (inhibitors).This struggle between nudge factors such as peer pressure and tug factors such as fear of getting caught and the struggle between the emotional and rational mind demonstrate the concept of the brain as a team of rivals as discussed in Ch. 5 of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman. In considering the risks of getting involved, many young people who chose not to participate frequently described “being able to counter impulsive ‘here-and-now thinking’, with thoughts about their future plans or long-term goals, and what they had to lose.”

The study also cites that a primary motivation for participation in the riots was “not individual badness or disadvantage so much as the urge to join in.” Rioters cited the strong influence and trigger of the “party atmosphere, adrenaline and hype”, which they found “encouraging”. As explored in social psychology and neuroscience, peer pressure and “simple herd behaviour” are surprisingly significant drivers of our behavior as our brains are “hardwired” to imitate. Does this mean that rioters are less culpable for their criminal behavior because they were merely following human instinct? As the study demonstrated, there are a large number of factors that the brain considers in making a decision to either to join or not join in the rioting, destructive behaviors, and looting. Many young people said they were motivated by “the thrill of getting free stuff – things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to have”, and antipathy towards the police. Neurological encouraged herd behavior is definitively less of a clear cut influence than the tumor growing in the right frontal lobe in the case of the “sudden pedophile”and is just one factor in a large number of other factors that the brain considered. While it may have made a difference, the real question regarding herd behavior’s role in the riots is not in determining culpability, but rather in determining how the government and pro-social groups can deter similar riots from happening in the future. These groups should look at the totality of nudge and tug factors, and seek to minimize nudge factors such as feelings of “having nothing to lose” and boredom while maximizing tug factors, such as building attachments to a community and providing chances for “jobs, prospects, and aspirations”.

Oxytocin: the Trust My Face Drug

Posted on 25 November 2011 by Michael Padon

Rape is a crime that is processed as non-consensual sex between 2 or more parties (excluding some underage cases in which the parents press charges). Some people sometimes use “date-rape” drugs such as Rohypnol or, in older circumstances, chloroform. This is still nonconsensual. Imagine a drug that builds a sense of trust between the rapist and his or her victim. It’s something that happens quickly and has fleeting effects, but results in voluntary consent without reason. This drug already exists and it’s currently one of the chemicals driving your brain: oxytocin. In the court room, such a drug can greatly effect how much trust the jury gives a witness, or even the ability to identify the face of a suspect in a lineup.

The whole idea of a witness in front of a jury is flawed. The general public has a very distorted understanding of how memory works, and therefore, in a trial, a jury will trust the testimony they hear much more than they should. Most testimony is not based on the facts at all, but how much the jury likes a witness. This can be compounded by natural variances in oxytocin level across jurors. Increased levels of oxytocin in a person have shown decreased activity in the amygdala, which is responsible for fear, and part of the striatum, which guides future behavior based on reward and feedback. Activities such as yoga, breast feeding, or exercise have been shown to increase oxytocin levels and thus increase trust. These variants could lead more persuasive jurors to argue for the point of one witness over another, despite one having more flawed testimony. Any change in oxytocin levels could result in a biased acceptance of information and further compounds the inaccuracies that plague witness testimony.

On the other hand, oxytocin has been shown to increase the ability to accurately recognize a face that one has seen before, and has potential applications to aid recognizing a witness from a line up. It has been shown that people who are nasally administered a dose of oxytocin are more able to recognize a face later. Surprisingly, this has no effect on the ability to recall specific attributes of a face, and would not be useful for character sketches. This can potentially help with identification of a criminal in a line up since a person will be accurately able to determine if they have seen the person’s face before, but the current research requires an initial administration before introduction to a face to be later recognized. Research into the use of oxytocin to aid in recognition after the fact is still ongoing but could potentially yield groundbreaking results that could greatly help the accuracy of criminal identification.

The use of oxytocin has many benefits but also carries risk. Research into its usage is still in development, but so far it is known that the drug can increase trust, which can have benefits and downfalls.

Emotion vs. Truth?

Posted on 23 November 2011 by jzhao

Increasingly, the news is not just news. Journalism is purportedly a truth-exposing field, and by all means it is. Of course the news informs the public of what we wouldn’t otherwise have access to, and provides an array of perspectives in an effort to isolate the truth. But, scanning the front page of CNN, it’s obvious that that’s not all it is. There is no way to be entirely impartial whenever an audience is involved, and a demanding one at that. The news, though informative, has no way of isolating pure communication of truth from selling their stories.

Articles like, “Burned Gadafi Nanny Making Progress“, “Mom Admits to Beating Baby to Death!“, and titling videos about the Casey Anthony case, “The Best Liar I’ve Ever Seen!” may be telling the truth, but are bordering on sensationalist appeal. In a society when our primary source for unbiased information relies so heavily on empathy, it’s no surprise that jury decisions in criminal trials are also easily swayed by emotional appeal.

Bright and Goodman-Delahunty discuss the impact of gruesome visual evidence on experimental participants and how this significantly impacts juror decisions.The integration of photographic evidence in general was shown to increase conviction rate, but the demonstration of gruesome visuals elicited more feelings of anger towards the defendant. A lawyer’s job is to do whatever in his or her power to convince the judge or the jury of his argument, and emotions are entirely understandable. However, when jurors begin to feel anger towards the defendant, it’s move beyond empathy to more of a personal involvement. Though, this may not be conscious,

The United States law system is comparatively to the rest of the world, one that is fair. So fair that it allows a jury, a symbolic representation of the people to decide its cases. However, perhaps it is time to admit that people are not fair. There are far too many conflicting feelings within humans that build upon guilt, revenge, and empathy to result in a proper decision. This by no means demonstrates that the jury system should be abolished, but rather that allowance of emotion-eliciting materials in the courtroom may need to be minimized.

On the other hand, that the elimination of emotional impact takes out the humanity of the courtroom, resulting in only, for example, neuro-imaging or mental disorder categorizations. Would this get rid of the need for any human involvement altogether? What are the repercussions of that? While it should not be dependent entirely on emotional impact, a law trial also should not be a demonstration of one correct answer. Multiple perspectives must be taken into account.

Shifting Focus Back to the Unseen

Posted on 23 November 2011 by skelley

James Fallon has the brain of a psychopath. But you wouldn’t know it from his behavior; Fallon is a loving family man with a successful career studying a range of human behavior, including the neurological correlates of psychopathy. After learning of his violent family history, he and his relatives underwent PET scans and genetic testing in search of possible inherited abnormalities. Everyone in Fallon’s family had the low-aggression variant of the MAO-A gene, important in regulating serotonin, and normal brain functioning – expect Fallon. He held up his results and was immediately alarmed. “I look just like one of those killers,” he exclaimed, “I have the pattern, the risky pattern.” Fallon’s brain has decreased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, an area important for moral decision-making and impulse control. How is it that Fallon’s neurological and genetic proclivities for antisocial behavior have no observable influence, and what does this mean for the future of neurolaw?

Fallon’s case parallels findings from a 2009 study led by Diego Iacono, popularly referred to as the Nun Study. Looking at evidence of Alzheimer’s in the brains of elderly sisters, Iacono and his colleagues found that “there’s a special group of people who at autopsy have the same about of pathology in the brain, but for some reason don’t show any clinical manifestations of the disease.” By analyzing the diaries of nuns from their young adulthood, the researchers found that the asymptomatic individuals exhibited superior language abilities, conveying ideas and deeper reflections in their writings. Conclusion: Biology is not omnipotent. Early experiences in learning and communicating fortified the brain in ways powerful enough to overcome the expression of neurological degeneration in Alzheimer’s.

Numerous studies document the ways in which criminal psychopaths neurologically and behaviorally differ from control subjects, but relatively little attention has been paid to individuals, like Fallon, who are psychopaths only in biology, not behavior. In 2008, Mehmet Mahmut led a team to investigate this population and found that despite sharing the same neuropsychological profile as criminal psychopaths, non-criminal psychopaths are somehow protected from developing antisocial tendencies, such as emotional and financial havoc. They speculate that an individual’s upbringing, in particular the lack of parental attachments, may steer biological underpinnings.

Clearly, brain patterns and genetic makeup are not sufficient causal factors for psychopathy; experience shapes the expression of biology. So what does this mean for the courts? This research shows that individuals with similar neurological capacities can make different choices, undermining the idea that “my brain made me do it”. But if uncontrollable experiences (e.g. childhood neglect) are directing those choices, are they any less culpable? The issue of volitional control remains complicated in cases where a poor environment contributed to psychopathic actions, but do offer insight into prevention. Neurological abnormalities are not a condemnation to crime. By promoting positive activities and relationships for at-risk children in violent environments, we can help keep psychopathy a dormant trait. We need to focus on what Iacono admits we cannot see – “the connection between cognition and pathology.”

Should PMDD Mitigate Sentencing?

Posted on 23 November 2011 by aldavies

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) is a disorder listed in the DSM-IV that afflicts between 3-8% of women. It is a severe form of PMS that may have significant impacts on the lives of those who suffer from it. In the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, hormone levels in the body are changing rapidly, with a noted steep increase in progesterone. Progesterone, though important for the reproductive system, is known to have psychiatric effects including depression, mood swings, emotional instability, and aggression. These symptoms and more, including panic attacks, increased interpersonal conflicts, and feeling overwhelmed or out of control, characterize PMDD.

A condition that causes increased aggression and other emotional instability? It is easy to imagine that at this time each month, the women whom this disease afflicts are at an increased likelihood of committing any number of emotional crimes. Does this constitute temporary insanity?

The temporary insanity defense was used for the first time in 1859 when Daniel Sickles claimed to have been driven insane by the knowledge of his wife’s affair when he killed her lover. Since then it has been used to reduce sentences. Because of the recognized emotional disturbances associated with PMDD, it is a good candidate for the basis of temporary insanity.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and God

Posted on 23 November 2011 by rkamath

The subject of God and religion has always been touchy and controversial. The helpfulness of religion is clear in many cases and slightly less so in others, while the existence of God has prompted many arguments between different groups. However, neuroscience has shown a peculiar relationship between our brains and belief in God, one that poses interesting questions for faith and spirituality.

Patients with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy experience the usual recurrent seizures cause by the disease. However, some also experience strong religious visions that would cause them to feel as if they are not alone and lead to religious sensations. These feelings can lead individuals to suddenly believe in God or feel as if there is a higher power; they become more compassionate and almost complacent compared to their previous self. In fact, according to the article, one of the founders of the Seventh Day Adventist movement was subject to a brain injury at the tender age of nine that caused her to have personality changes; some believe that these changes include alterations to her temporal lobe, leading her to feel very religious and eventually found the new Christian movement. Scientists do however recognize a difference between believing there is someone else in the room and having a religious experience.

This may mean that there was an evolutionary development of this region in order to further the experience of these holy sensations. According to renowned scientist Richard Dawkins, it may not be the case that we all naturally believe in God. There is just the capacity to do so that may have arisen with increased intelligence. Researchers even brain scanned a Buddhist meditating in order to observe effects on the brain. Bloodflow to the parietal lobes shut down almost completely, and these regions of the brain apparently give us a foothold on time and space. When they become inactive, we may “lose our sense of self” according to the article. This may have many implications for individuals who begin to act differently and may even do ridiculous things due to brain changes that cause them to suddenly believe in a higher power. Maybe cult leaders and those who form groups that seek to worship or believe in some higher being may form due to an individual’s brain changes, leading them to create huge groups of followers who blindly listen to whatever a leader says; deaths can result, as is the case with cults such as the Peoples Temple.

Brain of Psychopaths: differences in function and structure

Posted on 23 November 2011 by mhuang

Making up approximately 1% of the U.S population and up to 20% of the country’s prison population, psychopath and criminals with psychopathic traits is a major focus in both the legal system and neuroscience research. Many studies have already been conducted on the brains of psychopaths in hopes of elucidating clues about the causes of their antisocial behaviors. According to one review by Blair, it has been previously revealed that psychopaths exhibit increased levels of proactive and reactive aggression. Furthermore, through fMRI studies it has been found that people with psychopathic traits often have reduced amygdala and orbito-frontal cortex activities. While it has been shown that the activities in these brain regions are reduced in psychopaths, the actual physical difference that causes these reductions has yet to be presented.

However, recently a new study conducted by Newman et al reveals decreased physical connections between the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Amygdala is critical in mediating fear and anxiety while the vmPFC is responsible for “sentiments such as empathy and guilt.” Combined, the lessened connection leads to a lower activity by these brain regions that may explain the antisocial impulses displayed by psychopaths. The researchers of this study utilized a diffusion tension imaging device (DTI) and compared results between 20 psychopathic prisoners and 20 non-psychopathic prisoners that committed similar crimes. Results revealed a “reduction in structural integrity of white matter fibers” that connects the two brain regions. Additionally, an fMRI scan was performed. Similar to previous findings, researchers found less coordinated activities. This study is perhaps the first to present both structural and functional differences in the brains of a psychopath. According to Dr. Koenigs of the research team, these results indicate that there is “a specific brain abnormality that is associated with criminal psychopathy.”

With these findings, the researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison hope to shed more light on the source of the dysfunction and future strategies in treating psychopathy. Furthermore, the researchers discuss the legal implications of their findings. They question whether the legal system can hold psychopaths as accountable as someone that does not have a brain abnormality. I believe while the legal system should react to psychopaths differently, they should not be forgiven solely base off of brain differences. It is still necessary to take them off the streets if they committed a serious crime. However, perhaps the more appropriate long term response is to employ rehabilitation and treatments rather than incarcerations and punishments.

Moral tests for society?

Posted on 23 November 2011 by jiwen

It is not well-publicized to the general public that individuals who receive any type of public aid, from food stamps to unemployment assistance, must first submit a urine sample for drug-test, at least in the states of Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, and Florida, with many other states considering such legislation. Jonathan Miller of the St. Louis Today extends this scenario – technically, aren’t home-mortgage interest deductions a form of subsidies for the middle class? What about tax subsidies taken advantage of by tax lawyers for corporations? Eventually, does the money not come from the same pool, the U.S. Treasury? If so, then why are these groups not subject to such a qualifying test?

Miller’s main point, however, is that such a test serves to evaluate both physiological as well as moral capacity. The end argument is that someone who tests positive for drugs would probably squander their welfare check. Taking such an argument all the way to the top, why do we not test for moral responsibility from the lawmakers on down? The responsibilities of government arguably holds more consequences than the decisions of a person with a food stamp. With the housing bubble burst not so long ago in mind, it seems odd that corporations have and still receive aid without the need of putting up explicit codes of conduct they need to go by, or even if there are minimum qualifications of responsibility corporations would need to fulfill to even qualify for government aid.

However, in today’s world power is indirectly associated with responsibility, and ultimately morality. Despite recent exposures in subprime lending and credit scams, consumers still inherently believe that experts are inherently trustworthy and more knowledgeable (the latter is likely true). We know that this can be a very naive assumption. So should some form of moral testing bring us some good? Miller argues that, whatever the action, the current system does not work – by subjecting only the lower class to any form of standards testing, it alienates and imposes a sense of self-inferiority upon that group, which is unfair and psychologically unhealthy. Creating new moral standards for common folks and lawmakers alike, then, could even out the playing field.

Reference:

St. Louis Today

NeuroLaw Blog

from Baylor College of Medicine