Study reveals brain imaging can be used to pick out benefits cheats

Study reveals brain imaging can be used to pick out benefits cheats

A Royal Society report, containing study results on brains, has revealed that brain scans can be used to pick out benefits cheats, discovering whether they are really experiencing pain
through brain imaging.

When we are in pain, certain areas of the brain light up that can be seen by brain imaging techniques. Thus, the technique can be used to determine whether employees are really unfit for
work or they are just malingering.

The studies on the brain have also led us to understand how the brain works. These findings have become so improved that the judges can use these detailed scans to compile risk assessments
for reoffending when they are sentencing criminals.

Prof Nicholas Mackintosh of Cambridge University, who led the research, said that the brain imaging technology is not yet quite sophisticated enough to be used for these purposes but soon
it will be fit for that.

The scientists, in a new report entitled as Brain Waves Module 4: Neuroscience and the Law, added that bringing such technology into the courtroom as a lie detector can be dangerous because
it is easy to deceive this technology and juries may be too easily influenced by the evidence.

Prof Mackintosh also stated that if a person possesses a particular brain characteristic or gene linked to criminal behaviour, it “does not force you to behave in a criminal way [but]
it may increase the probability.”

He spoke, “I would be surprised if in five years there were any colossal changes but I think certainly in 25 years we might see serious change. Decisions on parole … and decisions on
whether someone is subject to an indeterminate sentence for public protection are areas where it is all about assessing probability, so it might be brought in a bit sooner.”

He also told, certain studies suggest that the age of criminal responsibility in Britain – ten years – could be too low. Recent research suggests that parts of our brain circuitry, which
are related to our behaviour, are not fully developed until the minimum age of 20.

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Posted by Zeeshan Gohar on Dec 17 2011. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry