News

New Neurolaw Publications

1. Iris Vilares, Michael Wesley, Woo-Young Ahn, Richard J. Bonnie, Morris B. Hoffman, Owen D. Jones, Stephen J. Morse, Gideon Yaffe, Terry Lohrenz, & Read Montague, Predicting the Knowledge-Recklessness Distinction in the Human Brain , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016).

Abstract:  Criminal convictions require proof that a prohibited act was performed in a statutorily specified mental state. Different legal consequences, including greater punishments, are mandated for those who act in a state of knowledge, compared with a state of recklessness. Existing research, however, suggests people have trouble classifying defendants as knowing, rather than reckless, even when instructed on the relevant legal criteria.

We used a machine-learning technique on brain imaging data to predict, with high accuracy, which mental state our participants were in. This predictive ability depended on both the magnitude of the risks and the amount of information about those risks possessed by the participants. Our results provide neural evidence of a detectable difference in the mental state of knowledge in contrast to recklessness and suggest, as a proof of principle, the possibility of inferring from brain data in which legally relevant category a person belongs. Some potential legal implications of this result are discussed.

2. Owen D. Jones, Keynote: Law and the Brain -- Past, Present, and Future , 48 Arizona State L. J. (2017) (symposium issue).

   Abstract: This article surveys the past, present, and likely futures of the brain sciences – including particularly cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and behavioral genetics – as they intersect with law.

Based on a symposium keynote address, it discusses recent research findings in neurolaw (including those from the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience) and the multiple ways in which brain sciences – despite some important limitations – can be useful to the development and progress of the legal system.