How the brain thinks about crime and punishment
Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 06:21
in Psychology & Sociology
In a pioneering, interdisciplinary study combining law and neuroscience, researchers at Vanderbilt University peered inside people's minds to watch how the brain thinks about crime and punishment. When someone is accused of committing a crime, it is the responsibility of impartial third parties, generally jurors and judges, to determine if that person is guilty and, if so, how much he or she should be punished. But how does one's brain actually make these decisions? The researchers found that two distinct areas of the brain assess guilt and decide penalty...