News

"Last year, New Scientist revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security is developing a system designed to detect "hostile thoughts" in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works." Published in the New Scientist today.

See link for full article

The UK Government has launched a scheme in four areas of England enabling members of the public to check on sex offender status those who have access to their children. An article reported by Reuters UK can be viewed by clicking the link below:

There is a growing body of research by Dr James Cantor and his colleagues which supports the hypothesis that neurodevelopmental 'purtubations' increase the risk of paedophilia in males. Specifically, neuropsychological findings suggest that paedophilic men have lower IQs, poorer visuospatial and verbal memory scores, increased levels of childhood head injuries resulting in unconsciousness, are more likely to be non-right handed, to be shorter in stature, and fail a school grades, than other offenders. MRI data has also strengthened the connection between biological determinants of paedophilia in that white matter deficiencies were reported.

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's intelligence arm is adding more polygraph studios and relying on outside contractors for the first time to conduct lie detection tests in an attempt to screen its 5,700 prospective and current employees every year."

The folowing report has been published by the British Psychological Society Research Board, dated June 2008:

 "Executive summary

These guidelines are derived from a review of the scientific study of human memory and a
detailed consideration of the relevant legal issues including the role of expert evidence.
The purpose of the guidelines is to provide those involved in legal work (criminal and
civil) with an accessible and scientifically accurate basis from which to consider issues
relating to memory as these arise in legal settings. The key points are summarised on the
page following.
The text that follows the key points overviews the relevant evidence and provides
recommended reading for those who wish to follow up any of the points individually. Also
provided for each section is a list of more technical references to some of the most
relevant scientific studies and findings.
The study of human memory has made considerable advances in recent decades and we
now have a much stronger and empirically informed understanding of memory. Current
theoretical thinking is at a stage that supports probabilistic but not absolute statements.
The guidelines and key points should then be taken as they are intended – as guidelines
and not absolute statements. Because they are based on widely agreed and acknowledged
scientific findings they provide a far more rigorously informed understanding of human
memory than that available from commonly held beliefs. In this respect they give courts a
much firmer basis for accurate decision-making".

The full report can be viewed by clicking on the file 'Memory and the Law' below.

The Neuroethics society announce that registration is now open for the first annual meeting of the Neuroethics Society, to be held on November 13-14, 2008, in Washington, DC.

For further information see links and downloadable file below.

"Computing team get international plaudits

THEY say the face is a mirror of the soul but how to read it, there's the rub…

A new technique, which interprets facial gestures has been developed by scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University and could be the most accurate 'lie detector' yet discovered.

Dubbed 'Silent Talker' the system uses artificial intelligence to detect and analyse thousands of micro-gestures, many of which go unnoticed by the naked eye.

The method has demonstrated significantly better results than the traditional polygraph lie detectors used by the CIA and is much simpler to use, needing no experts to operate it and no physical contact with the suspect.

Banks and insurance companies have already expressed interest in the system, which has manifold applications from job interviews and police investigations to airport security and counter-terrorism. It also has applications in medicine and could aid the diagnosis and monitoring of depressions, schizophrenia and psychopathy.

Project director Dr Zuhair Bandar in the University's Department of Computing and Mathematics said: "We have looked at systems across the world and are convinced that this is the most sophisticated*.

"A breakthrough in the UK is all the more significant given the large budgets made available for security in the USA post September 11."

The Manchester system, which can read stress, deception, tiredness and other traits, analyses non-verbal behaviour, which make up 93% of all human communication. Movements, however tiny, of muscles, eyebrows, eyes etc are continuous, involuntary and unintended and are considered impossible to fake. Operated by just a laptop and a camera, Silent Talker registers mismatches and incongruities between microgestures - variables that are virtually impossible for humans to analyse.

In phased tests to date, the system is accurate in over 80% of cases, compared to 70% for the best other current systems.

In one test, researchers asked volunteers to steal £10 each from a box and asked them to deny knowledge of the theft when later questioned. To compare the different reactions, another group who had seen but not stolen the money, was also quizzed about the missing money. During questioning, a secret camera filmed the interviewees faces. It correctly identified the liars in 80% of cases.

Dr Janet Rothwell, lead researcher on Silent Talker said: "Silent Talker is producing superior results and is fast, cheap, non invasive, unbiased and works virtually in real time.

"Statistically it has greater potential but the current results are good enough to aid in many situations, to change a line of questioning, to re-interview someone and such things. For example the Yorkshire Ripper was interviewed at least five times. I'd like to think that wouldn't happen with Silent Talker around.

The team is currently working with psychologists from MMU and the University of Liverpool, and has secured a patent application for its system.

Ends

*Earlier this year, a Minnesota team unveiled a lie detector which uses thermal imaging but the MMU team say looking a one 'channel' (ie heat behind the eyes) is too simplistic and unreliable.

For further details/interviews contact Dr Zuhair Bandar on 0161 247 1541 07751 825422, Mr Jim O'Shea on 0161 247 1546 or Dr Janet Rothwell on 0161 247 1492."

CFN recommends the following link to a project which aims to integrate Law and Neuroscience:

"Our Mission

The Time is Now

Neuroscience is a young field, but it has already produced many profound and beguiling discoveries about how the human brain works. While distant developments are hard to predict, it is expected from research that is already underway or being planned that our knowledge of brain functions will expand rapidly during the next few decades.

This new knowledge will increase our understanding of actions that our laws regulate and of attitudes that our laws reflect. How we apply this knowledge can have a major impact on the future of our legal system. With informed and cautious reform, our justice system could have more accurate predictions, more effective interventions, and less bias. Society could have less crime and fewer people in prisons. However, by ignoring or failing to integrate neuroscience properly, we could end up with a legal system that is worse off as a result of unreliable evidence that could send the wrong people to prison and because of widespread skepticism throughout society about law’s basic assumptions.

To avoid such dangers and to improve our legal system, neuroscientists need to understand law, and lawyers need to understand neuroscience. This training has barely begun. A few recent scholarly efforts have brought together neuroscientists and lawyers (Garland 2004, Zeki and Goodenough 2006). (The introduction to Garland 2004 provides a nice survey of the history and current state of law and neuroscience. On related developments in neuroethics, see Marcus 2002, Gazzaniga 2005, and Illes 2006.) Still, this rapidly emerging field is insufficiently theorized and researched. And without a solid, mutual understanding of each others’ fields, lawyers cannot respond rationally to developments in neuroscience, and neuroscientists cannot properly advise lawyers or even recognize the legal relevance of their research.

At present, no systematic program exists to address the difficult legal questions that will inevitably and quickly arise as neuroscience progresses in its ability to understand and manipulate behavior. We need such a program now".

CFN strongly recommends those individuals in violent relationships to consider taking the the Danger Assessment Questionnaire, developed by Jacquelyn C. Campbell, Ph.D., RN. This test highlights many of the risk factors associated with danger of homicide in situations of abusive relationships. For further information, please click on the website link below. Professionals can also obtain this assessment and obtain qualifications for its administration and use in practice.

The Centre for Forensic Neuroscience is pleased to announce that all referrals for MRI scanning will be carried out by Lodestone Patient Care, at York Diagnostic Imaging, Quantum House, Innovation Way, York Y010 5BR. This centre is equiped with the very latest 3 Tesla Excite Mangnetic Reasonance Imaging equipment, and meets recommended building security standards for receiving forensic patients and prisoners. Requests for forensic neuropathological examinations can also be carried out, which are supported up by an expert witness reporting service for Court purposes, if necessary.