Brain scans help distinguish a deliberate crime from a crime committed by negligence

The crimes committed by people can be deliberate or accidental, committed through negligence. In court, as a rule, premeditated crimes and those committed in the heat of passion or negligence, have a different legal assessment. True, it is extremely difficult to determine the state of a person at the time of committing a crime after everything has already happened. Realizing this, many criminals who have committed serious crimes, such as murder, try to file it as committed in the heat of passion or thoughtlessness. Malefactors know - it will be possible to prove, for example, manslaughter, the punishment will be milder than if the judge considers the crime to be intentional, and also planned in advance.

Modern technology can help the court to distinguish truth from deception, cold-blooded murder from committed in unconsciousness. A recent study, the results of which were published in PNA S (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), shows that the brain activity of criminals who perform lawlessness in a clear mind and solid memory differs from the brain activity of people who have committed a crime unconsciously. A study conducted by a team of experts from the Salk Institute for Biological Research, showed that scanning the brain of suspects helps to distinguish these two categories of people.

For this operation, functional magnetic resonance imaging is used. This is the name of a type of magnetic resonance imaging, which is performed to measure hemodynamic reactions (changes in blood flow) caused by the neural activity of the brain or spinal cord. The method is based on the fact that the cerebral blood flow and the activity of neurons are interconnected. When the brain area is active, the blood flow to this area also increases.
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The scan results are “fed” by a self-learning computer system with a specialized neural network. To implement their project, scientists invited several volunteers who agreed to scan and process its results. Only they were not hardened criminals - murderers, thieves and crooks. No, the experiment involved ordinary people who were asked to commit crime models, so to speak.

For example, on the table were placed portfolios with some goods. The participants in the experiment were asked to choose one of the portfolios, which then had to be carried through the guarded point with the guard and the scanner (the dot and the guard were also provided by the experimenters, nothing illegal). And they were given to know that “smuggled goods” had been invested somewhere. Representatives of the control group did not know in which portfolio there was “smuggling”. But participants in the experiment from another group were aware of this - they were warned about “smuggling”, but the choice was limited to just one portfolio. Thus, people from the first group were considered as “criminals” who committed an unknowing crime. People from the second group were considered criminals who knew what they were going for. Despite some simplicity and naivety of this experiment, the scientists considered that the brain activity of volunteers in the described situation is comparable to the brain activity of real criminals.

Scientists who conducted the experiment scanned the brain activity of all participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging with additional magnetic resonance imaging data. This is a way to obtain tomographic medical images for the study of internal organs and tissues using the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance. It is based on measuring the electromagnetic response of atomic nuclei, most often the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, namely, the excitation of them by a certain combination of electromagnetic waves in a constant magnetic field of high intensity.

The computer system, after analyzing the tomography data, showed that the “criminals” who went to the violation, realizing the presence of smuggling, activated other parts of the brain than those of the volunteers who went through the checkpoint, not knowing if everything was okay. portfolio. In the first case, the analysis showed activity of the middle prefrontal cortex. This, according to modern scientists, is an area that is responsible for human self-consciousness. She is also responsible for the behavior of a person awaiting reward or punishment. Also in this case, the temporal-parietal region was activated, beginning to work when a person deliberately pronounced a lie.



For those volunteers who were not aware of what was in the portfolio, the occipital cortex of the brain was activated , which is mainly responsible for the processing of visual information.

The results of the study are preliminary. Nevertheless, it is likely that criminals who go to a dark business consciously analyze the risks, assessing the situation from different sides. Those who committed the crime unconsciously think a little differently.

The authors of the experiment also checked two more scenarios. In the first case, those who knew about smuggling in a briefcase were informed of the impending inspection by a security guard. In the second case, the checkpoint arose on the path of the “nesuna” completely unexpectedly. And the areas of the brain for the "conscious criminals", which were discussed above, were in the first case the most active.

It is not yet clear whether the results of the work of scientists will find practical application in the justice system. The problem may be that the experiment was rather simple, the volunteers were influenced only by a limited number of factors. In the real world, people are influenced by a much larger number of external factors that alter brain activity in a certain way. The decisions that criminals make are also more complicated than those that participants in the experiment had to take.

DOI: 10.1073 / pnas.1619385114 ( About DOIs )