Brain Scans Might Predict Future Criminal Behavior
www.sciencedaily.com...
The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on
the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity.
The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain
activity in this region.
Can you just imagine this:
"Inmate Number 1242024, you are to be released tomorrow at 5 a.m. pending a MRI test to see if you're going to relapse."
"These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr.
Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University
of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a
path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity."
I think the most important part of all this is the possible use of the knowledge gained, and creating more effective targeted strategies when dealing
with criminals.
Kinda off topic:
If there's any ATS professionals that are familiar with the ACC(Anterior cingulate cortex) specifically, I was wondering if you may shed some light
on depression, the ACC, error-related negativity (ERN), plasticity and maturity. There's new information coming out daily it seems, as to the roles
and functions of the brain, the ACC IMO being the most fascinating.
I've spoken about this with an individual who works at the State University, in the psychology department, who runs the MRI's, sifts through data,
and works specifically on depression and children. When I asked her to elaborate on the ACC, plasticity, ERN's, and maturity... her eye's light up,
but couldn't really answer any questions. Which I thought was weird, but paints a clear picture as to the complexity of the brain and the difficulty
that surrounds it. You could spend a lifetime studying one region of the brain and never know a thing about another region. Which sounds absurd...
but it's that complex!
Anyways, I thought I'd share this information with the ATS community. Maybe in time before this gets all 'Minority Report' like.
What are your thoughts? If it got to this point(MRI's becoming standard, before releasing people from prisons), are you willing to trust a medical
professional and a MRI in deciding if you are fit enough to join the public?
Not to get all conspiratorial, but... this is something FEMA would LOVE TO HAVE.
"Are they re-educated yet? Lets put them in the machine!"
en.wikipedia.org...
Anterior cingulate cortex
