Neuroimaging explored as way to predict criminal behavior

Nature : Researchers at the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of criminals. By focusing on a small region in the front of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), Kent Kiehl and his colleagues found that convicts who had lower ACC activity when asked to make quick decisions were more likely to be rearrested. For their study, they used 96 male prisoners who were about to be released. The researchers used fMRI to scan the prisoners’ brains while they performed certain computer tasks, and they found that over the next four years, the “men who were in the lower half of the ACC activity ranking had a 2.6-fold higher rate of rearrest for all crimes and a 4.3-fold higher rate for nonviolent crimes,” writes Regina Nuzzo for Nature. The researchers say much more work is needed to improve the technique’s reliability and consistency, however.