Behavioral & Neuroscience Law Committee (BNLC)

News and Research Blurb

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Paul-Michael Lowey
Eric Y. Drogin, J.D., Ph.D., ABPP
BNLC Co-Chair
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
339.200.9131
eyd@drogin.net
edrogin@bidmc.harvard.edu

Kate Mayer Mangan, J.D.

BNLC Co-Chair
Donocle
San Diego, CA
kate@donocle.com

Jana Robinson, J.D., M.A.

BNLC Vice Chair
Family Division, NJ Superior Court
Trenton, NJ
janet.robinson@icloud.com

Carol Williams, LL.B.

BNLC Vice Chair
Aberystwyth University
Aberystwyth, Wales
cas55@aber.ac.uk

Paul-Michael R. Lowey
Editor, BNLC News and Research Blurb
William & Mary Law School, 2017
Williamsburg, VA
prlowey@email.wm.edu

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Sentencing & Punishment

Brains Of Pedophiles Who Abuse Children Are Different To Those Who Do Not, Scientists Discover.
INDEPENDENT. A new study suggests that the brains of pedophiles who have never attacked a child
are different from pedophiles who have. Scientists used an MRI scanner to study the minds of 40
child abusers and 37 people who are pedophiles but have never sexually assaulted a child, along with
40 healthy non-offending people used as controls. The researchers found what they called
inhibition-related activation of two areas of the brain, the left posterior cingulate and left superior
frontal cortex, in the non-offending group. In the community, pedophilia is often equated with
child molestation but it is evident that pedophilia is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition to
engage in child sexual offending, said Dr. Kaergel of the University of Duisburg-Essen. The
researchers hope that this information will lead to better treatment for those diagnosed with
pedophilia.
(October 25, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/zwxszn4
The Psychology of Disproportionate Punishment. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. A recent study looked at the
relationship between psychological factors and disproportionate punishment using a computer
game. In the game, hundreds of online subjects watched a person steal from another, and then they
were asked how much punishment does that person deserve. The researchers looked at the effect of
intergroup bias by telling them the thief were a member of a different country or a fan of a rival
sports team. The researchers predicted that punishers were likely going to be harsher to outsider.
But to their surprise, on the whole, people acted extremely fairly, meting out virtually identical levels
of punishment to in-group and out-group members alike. However, when subjects were asked to
memorize a seven-digit alphanumeric code or were forced to dole out punishment quickly, a new
pattern emerged. Suddenly, people were subjecting out-group members to vicious retribution and
giving those in the in-group a pass. These studies suggest that certain features of the human mind
are prone to intergroup bias in punishment. While our slow, thoughtful deliberative side may
desire to maintain strong standards of fairness and equality, our more basic, reflexive side may be
prone to hostility and aggression to anyone deemed an outsider.
(October 18, 2016).
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-psychology-of-disproportionate-punishment/
Study Provides Insight On Why Risk-Taking Behavior Increases During Adolescence. NEUROSCIENTIST NEWS.
Adolescents among humans and non-human animals alike are more inclined to engage in heightened
risk-taking behavior, exploration, and novelty seeking. Although these attributes provide adaptive
value in enabling individuals to gain importance in the world, including independence from parents,
if taken too far, this tendency could lead to potentially dangerous behavior, including drug use,
harmful drinking, addiction, unsafe sex, and risky driving, which may result in unintended injuries,
violence and/or even premature death. A new Dartmouth College study reveals that this risky
behavior may be caused by an imbalance in activity between the prefrontal cortex, responsible for
cognitive control and inhibition, and the nucleus accumbens, which plays a central role in rewardseeking and addiction. (October 17, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/hyryw58
The Psychology of Victim-Blaming. THE ATLANTIC. Any time someone defaults to questioning what a
victim could have done differently to prevent a crime, he or she is participating, to some degree, in
the culture of victim-blaming. Sherry Hamby, a professor of psychology at the University of the
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South and founding editor of the APAs Psychology of Violence journal, believes that just world
hypothesis plays a significant role in victim-blaming. Its this idea that people deserve what
happens to them. Theres just a really strong need to believe that we all deserve our outcomes and
consequences. Researchers Laura Niemi, a postdoctoral associate in psychology at Harvard
University, and Liane Young, a professor of psychology at Boston College, have been conducting
research that they hope will address the phenomenon of victim blaming head-on. They found that
moral values play a large role in determining the likelihood that someone will engage in victimblaming behaviors, such as rating the victim as contaminated rather than injured, and thus
stigmatizing that person more for having been the victim of a crime. Niemi and Young identified
two primary sets of moral values responsible: binding values and individualizing values. While
everyone has a mix of the two, people who exhibit stronger binding values tend to favor protecting a
group or the interests of a team as a whole, whereas people who exhibit stronger individualizing
values are more focused on fairness and preventing harm to an individual. (October 5, 2016).
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/the-psychology-of-victim-blaming/502661/
Learning, Cognition, & Memory
Why Infants Pay More Attention To People Who Speak Their Native Language. LOS ANGELES TIMES. New
research suggests that babies are highly selective in whom they will pay attention to. Before their
first birthdays, this research shows, babies distinguish between people like me and all others. The
new research shows that, given the choice of listening to someone speaking in their native language
and someone speaking another tongue, 11-month-old babies will consistently ignore the foreign
speaker and pay attention to the person speaking the language thats familiar to them. The
researchers used EEG (electroencephalogram) to observe the infants brain waves while they
watched a video of two women and an unfamiliar object. The object was identified as a blicket, a
made-up word babies were unlikely to have heard before. In the moments that babies could reliably
expect to learn something new, their brain wave activity bore a surprising resemblance to that of
adults primed for important incoming information: Researchers consistently detected an increased
pattern of theta-oscillations in those anticipatory moments.
(October 17, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/hbdjp33
New Study IDs Brain Cells That Help Us Learn by Watching Others. PSYCH CENTRAL. From infancy, we
learn by watching other people, and new research has pinpointed the individual neurons that
support this observational learning. In the study, each person took turns choosing cards on his or
her own and then watched two other players draw cards from the same decks. By learning from the
results of their own and the other players choices, the participants quickly zeroed in on the deck
containing better cards. The research team was surprised to discover that individual neurons deep in
the frontal lobe reacted as the patient considered whether they or their opponents would pick a
winning card. Called the anterior cingulate cortex, the region plays an important role in high-level
functions like decision-making, reward anticipation, social interaction and emotion, the researchers
explained. According to the researchers, the findings will help scientists better understand the
organization of neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex and exactly what they do. The researchers
noted that the cells in the same region fired vigorously each time a person won or the other players
lost, and decreased their activity whenever the person lost or the other players won.
(October 2, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/h8o5v42
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Mental Illness & Treatment

MRI Shows Brain Disruption In Children With PTSD. NEUROSCIENTIST NEWS. Researchers from China
recently used MRI to compare brain structure in 24 pediatric PTSD patients and a control group of
23 trauma-exposed children without PTSD. The children had experienced the 2008 Sichuan
earthquake, a massive disaster in south central China that killed almost 70,000 people and injured
more than 370,000. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) results and graph theory, a relatively
simple and widely used way of modeling the human brain connectome, the researchers were able
find significant structural differences between the PTSD and non-PTSD groups. The PTSD group
had changes suggestive of decreased local and global network efficiency due to damage or
disconnection between linked regions. (October 25, 2016).
http://www.neuroscientistnews.com/research-news/mri-shows-brain-disruption-children-ptsd
Can Mental Illness Be Prevented In The Womb? NPR.In 2013, University of Colorado psychiatrist Robert
Freedman and colleagues recruited 100 healthy, pregnant women from greater Denver to study
whether giving the B vitamin choline during pregnancy would enhance brain growth in the
developing fetus. At five weeks old, the children were exposed to a series of clicking sounds in the
lab while their brain activity was monitored by electroencephalogram, or EEG, a method for
recording electrical brain activity via electrodes placed on the scalp. Normally, when exposed to the
same sound successively, both infant and adult brains will exhibit "inhibition," or a far weaker pulse
of activity in response to the second sound. We realize that the now familiar tone is insignificant; our
brains are unmoved. However, in some kids this inhibition doesn't occur a finding linked with an
increased risk for attention problems, social withdrawal and, later in life, schizophrenia. The results
published in 2013 in the American Journal of Psychiatry show that 76 % of newborns whose mothers
received choline supplements had normal inhibition to the sound stimuli. The proportion fell to 43
% in those born to mothers who did not get them. It appeared that choline might steer the infant
brain away from a developmental course that predicted mental health problems. We realized the
optimal time to try this intervention is during pregnancy, he says. Though choline is available in a
number of foods eggs, seafood and liver are particularly rich in the nutrient Freedman's work
suggests that for many women, dietary sources may be inadequate during pregnancy. Also, prenatal
supplements tend not to include it. (October 22, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/js2djy9
New Clues To How Lithium Soothes The Bipolar Brain May Shed Light On Other Mental Illnesses. SCIENCE
MAGAZINE. A team of neuroscientists at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) has
linked the success of lithium treatments for mental disorders to dendritic spines. Dendritic spines
are tiny projections where excitatory neurons form connections, or synapses, with other nerve cells.
In the study, the researchers engineered the mice to carry a genetic mutation that is common in
people with autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The researchers found that lithium
treatment restored healthy numbers of dendritic spines in the mice. Furthermore, the lithium also
reversed symptoms in these mutant micelack of interest in social interactions, decreased
motivation, and increased anxietythat mimic those in the human diseases. (October 18, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/hwoqd92
The DEA Is Withdrawing A Proposal To Ban Another Plant After The Internet Got Really Mad.
WASHINGTON POST. In last months Blurb, I reported that the DEA was planning to put kratom on
Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive category for drugs. However, the
DEA has reversed this decision after public outcry. DEA has received numerous comments from
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members of the public challenging the scheduling action, wrote acting Administrator Chuck
Rosenberg. Researchers say that their work with kratom could eventually lead to the development of
non-addictive alternatives to powerful opiate painkillers. Placing kratom in schedule 1 would cripple
researchers ability to study the drug, they say. (October 12, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/hgj9t8p
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Phobias Reduces Cerebral Blood Flow To Certain Brain Areas. PSYPOST.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for a phobia can reduce cerebral blood flow, according to a
recent study published in Brain and Behavior. The study is the first to use arterial spin labeling to
measure cerebral blood flow changes in phobia-associated regions following CBT. Arterial spin
labeling is a fMRI method that traces water molecules in arteries that measures cerebral blood flow
more accurately. The method is more accurate particularly because it is sensitive to slow variations in
brain activity. Eight female patients with spider phobia were scanned before and 1 month after an
exposure-based group therapy for spider phobia. For the scan, patients were shown pictures of
spiders and their anticipatory anxiety and post-processing of phobia-relevant information was
measured. The results revealed that CBT significantly reduced spider phobic symptoms in all
patients. Symptom reduction during anticipatory anxiety was accompanied by reduced cerebral
blood flow in the parahippocampal gyrus, ventral anterior thalamus, Brodmann area 8, and the
anterior cingulate cortex. During post-processing of phobia-relevant information, patients showed
reduced cerebral blood blow in the insula, components of the motor cortex, and areas associated
with language functions. The findings suggest that ASL may be a suitable method for monitoring
and evaluating whether different psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy treatments are effective.
(October 6, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/zlnpkpn
Sports & Neuroscience
How We Discovered That Heading A Football [Soccer Ball] Causes Impairment Of Brain Function. THE
CONVERSATION. Soccer players often practice heading, in which the player uses her head to direct
the ball to a teammate or into the net. New research, published in EBioMedicine, suggests that a single
session of heading practice results in temporary impairment in memory and a disruption of the
normal balance of chemicals in the brain. The researchers conducted the study by asking a group of
soccer players to head a ball 20 times, fired from a ball machine to simulate the pace and power of a
corner kick. The researchers conducted cognitive tests before and after the trial to determine the
effects. They found that soccer heading resulted in immediate and measurable changes in brain
function. On the memory portion of the test, heading practice reduced performance by between
41% and 67%. On a brighter note, the researchers found these effects were temporary, normalizing
within 24 hours. More research is needed to determine the long-term consequences of heading on
brain health are. (October 24, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/hakda9c
Football Alters The Brains Of Kids As Young As 8. THE ATLANTIC. A new MRI study in the journal
Radiology shows that football players ages 8 to 13 who have had no concussion symptoms still show
changes associated with traumatic brain injury. Christopher Whitlow, chief of neuroradiology at
Wake Forest School of Medicine, wanted to see how head impact affects developing brains. His
team studied male football players between ages 8 and 13 over the course of a season, recording
head impact data using a Head Impact Telemetry System to measure force, which was correlated
with video of games and practices. Before and after the season, the players also underwent elaborate
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brain imaging. Diffusion tensor imaging is a type of MRI thats used to identify tiny changes in the
structure of white matter (the neurons in the brain that are coated in myelin). The image measures
fractional anisotropy (FA) of the movement of water molecules along axons. In healthy white
matter, the direction of water movement tends to be uniform, but FA values decrease as movement
becomes less ordered, and that process has been associated with head trauma. In this case, the
images of the boys brains at the end of the season showed a significant relationship between head
impact and decreased FA in white-matter tracts. Boys who experienced more head impact had more
changes. (October 24, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/j9anl9x
Neuroscientific Research & Technology
The New Scanners That Can Really Get Inside Your Head. THE GUARDIAN. The University of
Cambridges Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre is unveiling some of the most advanced brain imaging
technology in the world. Among the scanners are (1) a Siemens 7T Terra MRI scanner, (2) a GE
Healthcare PET/MR scanner, and (3) a hyperpolarizer. The MRI scanner allows researchers to see
details as tiny as a grain a sand. The outer layer of the brain, the cortex, is about 3-4mm thick. That
is the grey matter that provides us with our thoughts. Current scanners show it as a single strip. The
new 7T device will allow us to differentiate the cortex so we will be able to see its different
structures and allow us to understand how they interact. We are going to learn how the brain works
as a network. By contrast, the PET/MR scanner will allow scientists not only to study structural
alterations in the brain but to map chemical changes that go with them. This should enable
researchers to diagnose dementia before any symptoms have arisen and to understand which
treatments may best halt or slow the disease, says Professor Fiona Gilbert, who will lead the work
on the PET/MR scanner. . The third new imaging device, the hyperpolarizer, is already in operation
and is allowing scientists to make highly sensitive real-time measurements of bodily processes. Not
all patients suffering from a particular cancer respond in the same way to treatment because of the
underlying differences in the genetics of their tumor. However, if you sequence the DNA in the
tumor, you can select drugs that might work for that individual, explains Professor Kevin Brindle.
Using hyperpolarization and MRI, we then hope to be able to tell whether that drug is working
within a few hours of starting treatment. If its working, you continue, if not, you change the
treatment. (October 23, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/z63gx79
Mice Feel Each Other's Pain. SCIENCE MAGAZINE. Studying the effects of alcohol withdrawal in mice,
Andrey Ryabinin, a behavioral neuroscientist at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland,
and colleagues stumbled on an interesting phenomenon: Mice can detect pain in other mice. Healthy
mice living in the same room with mice experiencing pain are up to 68% more sensitive to pain
themselves, regardless of their stress levels, according to the new study, which found that mice could
scent when their fellows were suffering. The discovery suggests that current methods for studying
rodent pain may need to be overhauled, and it may even point to a novel mechanism for pain
transmission between humans, the authors say. (October 19, 2016).
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/mice-feel-each-others-pain
Scientists Have Found How To Make People Hallucinate, And How To Measure What They See. THE
CONVERSATION. Hallucinations are commonly associated with disorders such as schizophrenia and
Parkinsons disease. But healthy people can also have visual hallucinations after taking drugs, being
sleep deprived, or even from suffering migraines. But the unpredictability, complexity and personal
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nature of hallucinations make them difficult to measure scientifically without having to rely on
verbal descriptions. Their changing content, including colors and changing shapes, add to the
difficulty. The researchers were able to elicit a predictable hallucination. To do this, rather than
flashing random lights or a full computer or TV screen on and off, they flickered a doughnut ring
shape instead. Participants watched the image of a plain white ring flicker on and off around ten
times per second against a black background. All of them reported seeing pale grey blobs appear in
the ring and rotate around it, first in one direction and then the other. To measure the
hallucinations, the researchers placed a second ring marked with permanent perceptual grey blobs
(not hallucinated) inside the white ring and then flickered this ring again. This allowed people to
simultaneously look at hallucinated and perceptual blobs and make a simple comparison. (October
12, 2016).
http://tinyurl.com/gwvvy39

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