The initiative on Neuroscience and Law has four prongs:
₪ Development of new technologies: The initiative will fuel new experiments leveraging Baylor’s areas of expertise – for example, neuroimaging for the prediction of recidivism, and real-time brain feedback for rehabilitation. Individual projects are expected to generate new funding from the NSF, NIH, and private foundations. The projects will be well positioned within BCM’s world-class facilities for neuroscience, psychiatry, and functional brain imaging.
₪ Local and national outreach: In May 2008 we will host a conference of experts in law, policy and neurobiology. The conference is expected to lead to an edited volume of papers and establish BCM as an epicenter for Neurolaw research and development.
₪ Teaching: We teach a yearly Law, Brains and Behavior course. Participants include graduate and medical students from BCM and Rice, law students from the University of Houston, and professional lawyers and clinical psychologists.
₪ Fellowships: We fund year-long fellowship positions for the detailed study of issues at the interface of brain and law. These fellowships generate experiments at the law/neuroscience interface that directly inform new policy.
Baylor College of Medicine’s Initiative on Neuroscience and Law addresses how new discoveries in neuroscience should navigate the way we make laws, punish criminals, and develop rehabilitation. The project brings together a unique collaboration of neurobiologists, legal scholars, ethicists, medical humanists, and policy makers, with the goal of running experiments that will result in modern, evidence-based policy.
Emerging questions at the interface of law and neuroscience include: Is it a legitimate defense to claim that a brain tumor ‘made you do it’? Do the brains of minors have the same decision-making and impulse control as adult brains – and how does that change punishment? Can novel technologies such as brain imaging be leveraged for rehabilitation? How should juries assess responsibility, given that most behaviors are driven by systems of the brain that we cannot control?
In conjunction with study and development of policy, the initiative will fuel the development of new technologies for diagnosis and rehabilitation – for example, describing neural signatures that predict recidivism, and developing feedback in real-time brain imaging as a strategy for rehabilitation.
Links
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•Daniel Goldberg’s ethics blog
Please contact us with any questions, including upcoming events and potential for involvement.
Initiative on Law, Brains and Behavior
David Eagleman, Ph.D., Director
Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry
Baylor College of Medicine
1 Baylor Plaza
Houston, TX 77030
713-798-6699