Neuroethics & Law Blog

Cheating aIAT Lie Detection

Cognitive Daily has an interesting post about the aIAT (autobiographical implicit association test) when used as a method of lie detection.  Looks like it can be cheated pretty easily.

"Blind Expertise" by Robertson

The piece below by Christopher Robertson (Law, Fellow at Petrie-Flom at Harvard Law School) was recently posted to SSRN.  It looks very interesting:

"Blind Expertise" 

New York University Law Review, Vol. 85, 2010
Harvard Public Law Working Paper No. 09-35

CHRISTOPHER T. ROBERTSON, Harvard University - Harvard Law School
America spends hundreds of billions of dollars on its system of civil litigation, and expert witnesses appear in the vast majority of cases. Yet, litigants currently select and retain expert witnesses in ways that create the appearance of biased hired-guns on both sides of every case and thereby deprive factfinders of a clear view of the scientific facts. As a result, factfinders too often get it wrong, which undermines deterrence and compensation and facilitates frivolous claims and defenses. Although many have suggested that court-appointed experts could be a solution, such proposals raise concerns about accuracy and fairness and have failed to gain traction in the American system that depends on deeply-ingrained adversarial norms and incentives.

Drawing on the notion of blind research used in the sciences and the veil of ignorance in political theory, this Article offers a novel and feasible reform that brings unbiased experts to factfinders as a rational strategy of self-interested litigants within the adversarial system. If litigants use an intermediary to randomly select qualified experts to render opinions without knowledge of their sponsors, some biases can be eliminated and those litigants will win more cases. A probabilistic analysis reveals that the result will be greater accuracy of litigation outcomes compared to the status quo and compared to litigation with court-appointed experts. A game theoretic analysis shows that status quo discovery rules make this a no-risk proposition for litigants, and that they will employ the procedure as a rational strategy in litigation. Courts and legislatures can, with minimal interventions, ensure that blind expertise becomes the new gold standard in litigation, just as it is in science. This Article explores blind expertise as a worthwhile reform to the system of medical malpractice liability in particular and suggests that the procedure may be viable in many other contexts beyond litigation, wherever laypersons must rely upon experts that may be biased.

Smart Machines in the NYT

The New York Times recently ran this interesting article on the future of artificial intelligence.  Some people are starting/continuing to worry about what happens when, say, speech synthesis gets close enough to real human speech that bad guys start using the technology to cheat or otherwise victimize people.  Oh, and autonomous killing machines.  They're worried about that, too. 

Here's an excerpt from the NYT article about a recent meeting on the subject organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Monterey Bay, CA:

The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of “the loss of human control of computer-based intelligences.” It will also grapple, Dr. Horvitz said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical issues, as well as probable changes in human-computer relationships. How would it be, for example, to relate to a machine that is as intelligent as your spouse?

Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research so that technology improved society rather than moved it toward a technological catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be conducted in a high-security laboratory.

The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the future of the field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975 Asilomar meeting and received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980, said it was important for scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable.

“If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.,” he said, referring to genetically modified foods, “then it is very difficult. It’s too complex, and people talk right past each other.”

Bar Exam "Modest" Proposal

No neuroscience here.  But Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy offers this modest proposal related to the bar exam. Make those who create and administer the bar exam take it and pass it each year.  From his post:

Of course, few if any bar exam officials or state bar leaders could pass the bar exam without extensive additional study (some might fail even with it). That's because, as anyone who has taken a bar exam knows, they test knowledge of thousands of arcane legal rules that only a tiny minority of practicing lawyers ever use. This material isn't on the exam because you can't be a competent lawyer if you don't know it. It's there so as to make it more difficult to pass, thereby diminishing competition for current bar association members (the people whose representatives, not coincidentally, control the bar exam process in most states - either directly or through their lobbying efforts). Effectively, bar exams screen out potential lawyers who are bad at memorization or who don't have the time and money to take a bar prep course or spend weeks on exam preparation.

My proposed reform wouldn't fully solve this problem. But it could greatly diminish it. If bar exam board members and bar association leaders were required to take and pass the exam every year, they would have strong incentives to reduce the amount of petty trivia that is tested. After all, anything they include on the exam is something they themselves will have to memorize! As prominent practicing lawyers, however, they presumably are already familiar with those laws that are so basic that any attorney has to know them; by limiting the exam to those rules, they can minimize their own preparation time. In this way, the material tested on bar exams might be limited to the relatively narrow range of legal rules that the average practicing lawyer really does need to know.

Phineas Gage History Project

In a comment to an earlier post on the Neuroethics & Law Blog (see here), Matthew Lena has posted a comment requesting help with research on Gage's life.  See the comment for more information if you'd like to help out with this interesting research project.

MacArthur L&N Project Blog

The MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Project has added a blog here.  I've also added it to the blogroll.  Welcome!

"The Neuro Revolution" by Zack Lynch

Zack Lynch's new book, "The Neuro Revolution," is now available.  Some of you may know that Zack writes the very interesting Brain Waves blog and was a speaker at the First Annual Meeting of the Neuroethics Society.  On his blog, he often focuses on the business side of advances in the neurosciences, a topic that surely warrants our attention.  I have yet to read the book but will soon receive a copy of it.  Here are some promotional materials for the book:

The Neuro Revolution
How Brain Science Is Changing Our World

Published by St. Martin's Press
History has already progressed through an agricultural revolution, an industrial revolution, and an information revolution. THE NEURO REVOLUTION: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World (St. Martin's Press) by Zack Lynch foretells a fast approaching fourth epoch that will yet again transform how humans live, work and play.  Neurotechnology-new tools for both understanding and influencing our brains including brain imaging-is now being applied not only to breakthrough medicine but to almost every aspect of human endeavor, from financial markets to law enforcement to politics to advertising and marketing, artistic expression, warfare, and even to religious belief.

By telling us the stories behind the brilliant people leading this worldwide revolution, taking us into their laboratories, boardrooms and courtrooms, Zack Lynch illuminates a unique, insider's glimpse into the startling future now arriving at our doorstep.  The insights and revelations within THE NEURO REVOLUTION will foster wonder, debate, and in some cases consternation.  Above all, though, they need to be understood by those who will be most affected-all of us.

THE NEURO REVOLUTION is the first book to provide a comprehensive view of the impact brain science will have on law, marketing, financial markets, education, national defense, religion, investing, healthcare, government and entertainment.  Moreover, the book describes a new tool through which to view the future, Time's Telescope, which draws upon the history of technological revolutions to project into our common future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ZACK LYNCH is the founder and executive director of the Neurotechnology Industry Organization, a global trade association representing companies involved in neuroscience, brain research centers and patient advocacy groups.  He is also the co-founder of NeuroInsights, the world's leading market research firm covering the neurotechnology industry.

Please visit The Neuro Revolution website for more advance praise, information on book tour, or to purchase the book.

The Neuro Revolution
How Brain Science is Changing Our World
By Zack Lynch with Byron Laursen
Publication Date: July 19, 2009
St. Martin's Press // Trade Hardcover
0-312-37862-9 // $25.99 // 256 pages

"Moving Beyond Animal Rights: A Legal/Contractualist Critique"

Richard L. Cupp, Jr., (Law, Pepperdine) has passed along some information about a recent article of his in the San Diego Law Review that:

critiques the analogy made by some animal rights theorists between granting rights to "marginal" humans (e.g., mentally incapable adults and infants) and bestowing rights to animals. Moving Beyond Animal Rights: A Legal/Contractualist Critique . . . explores current and historical arguments for granting some rights to mentally incapable humans. The article asserts that none of the major theories of rights for marginal humans are useful analogies for arguments for animal rights.

Here is the SSRN link.

Psychopharmacological Enhancement Theme in Neuroethics

The Neuroethics & Law Blog, in partnership with the journal Neuroethics, is pleased to report that a new issue of the journal is now available online.  It is a theme issue--"Psychopharmacological Enhancement"--and is guest edited by Maartje Schermer and Ineke Bolt.  Since it is a theme issue, this time, I'll post the whole list of articles together.  Click here to go directly to the Neuroethics website: 

 

Article

Introduction

Maartje Schermer and Ineke Bolt

PDF (53.5 KB)HTML

Article

Psychotropic Drug Use: Between Healing and Enhancing the Mind

Toine Pieters and Stephen Snelders

PDF (194.9 KB)HTML

Article

The Future of Psychopharmacological Enhancements: Expectations and Policies

Maartje Schermer, Ineke Bolt, Reinoud de Jongh and Berend Olivier

PDF (206.4 KB)HTML

Article

Ethically Justified, Clinically Applicable Criteria for Physician Decision-Making in Psychopharmacological Enhancement

Matthis Synofzik

PDF (320.5 KB)HTML

Article

Psychopharmaceutical Enhancers: Enhancing Identity?

Ineke Bolt and Maartje Schermer

PDF (156.5 KB)HTML

Article

Erlebnis, Erwartung und Ethik (Experience, Expectation, and Ethics)

Sherry Loveless and James Giordano

PDF (42.9 KB)HTML

"Criminal Mental Health and Disability Law"

An ABA representative recently sent me news about (and will soon send me a copy of) "Criminal Mental Health and Disability Law, Evidence and Testimony".  Below, I've posted some information about the book from its website (available here):

Criminal Mental Health and Disability Law, Evidence and Testimony: A Comprehensive Reference Manual for Lawyers, Judges and Criminal Justice Professionals is the first book to examine in detail the legal relationships that link criminal justice, mental health, and disability discrimination law. Regular: $110

Chapters include:

• A legal history of mental health and disability in the criminal justice system
• Overview of legal terms, concepts, developments, and considerations
• Criminal incompetency: pre-trial, trial, and post-trial
• Insanity and diminished culpability
• Dangerousness standards in the law, including death penalty
• Jails, prisons and secure "treatment"
  facilities: conditions of confinement and release
• Admissibility of expert evidence and testimony
• Mental health diagnoses and assessments
• Glossary
• Detailed index and table of contents
• Table of cases

"This unique Reference Manual… [explains] what the law requires for defendants and inmates with disabilities, what legal remedies are available to correct injustices, and how our legal system can better protect their rights.”  H. Thomas Wells, Jr., ABA President      Anthony A. Joseph, Chair, ABA Criminal Justice Section     Alex J. Hurder, Chair, ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law

Co-sponsored by ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law and the ABA Criminal Justice Section

News Roundup from the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics - Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences

July 16, 2009 Last Edition's Most Popular Article Disagreement with implications: Diverging discourses on the ethics of non-medical use of methylphenidate for performance enhancement BMC Medical Ethics 2009: 10: 72 In the Academic Literature: Training Improves Multitasking Performance by Increasing the Speed of Information Processing in Human Prefrontal Cortex Neuron 2009:63(1):127-138 The cry embedded within the purr Current Biology 2009: 19(13):R507-8 Remote Control of Neuronal Activity in Transgenic Mice Expressing Evolved G Protein-Coupled Receptors Neuron 2009:63(10):27-39 Neuroscientists Need Neuroethics Teaching Science 2009:325(5937):147 How brain training makes multitasking easier Nature July 15 2009  Probing the Neural Correlates of Anticipated Peer Evaluation in Adolescence Child Development 2009:80(4):1000-1015 Aspects of Fetal Learning and Memory Child Development 2009:80(4):1251-1258 Individual Differences in True and False Memory Retrieval Are Related to White Matter Brain Microstructure The Journal of Neuroscience 2009:29(27):8698-8703 Bilateral subthalamic nucleus stimulation in advanced Parkinson's disease: five year follow-up Journal of Neurology 2009:256(2) In the Popular Press: Cut-Prone Fighters Turn to Surgery to Limit Bleeding The New York Times July 10 2009 Sunday Book Review: YOU ARE HERE Why We Can Find Out Way to the Moon But Get Lost in the Mall The New York Times July 10 2009  The Next Hacking Frontier: Your Brain? Wired Science July 9 2009 Neuroscience: Is There Anything It Can’t Do? Stanford Center for Law & the Biosciences Blog The neuroscience of an unwanted limb Mind Hacks July 13 2009 'The myth of the chemical cure' BBC News July 15 2009 Gibbon sings 'door-slamming' tune BBC News July 15 2009 Brain wiring creates false memories New Scientist July 15 2009 'Honest Joes' and cheaters unmasked in brain scans New Scientist July 13 2009  Number Of Patients With Dementia On The Rise Science Daily July 13 2009  Monkeys And Humans Use Parallel Mechanism To Recognize Faces Science Daily July 12 2009 The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences (PEBS) is a collaborative effort of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute. The goal of PEBS is to ensure that research in brain science proceeds with an informed understanding of ethical issues, and that philosophical and empirical analyses of the advances in brain research proceed with an informed understanding of the science. With the PEBS Neuroethics News Roundup, we will present a weekly survey of the most pertinent and thought-provoking new articles from both peer-reviewed academic journals and the popular press. Please note: if this email is not helpful to you or If you know anyone else who may be interested in receiving this email, contact us and we will adjust our mailing list.  Thank you! Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics | 201 North Charles, Suite 1701  Baltimore, MD 21201 | Office: 410-625-7871  Contact Us: [email protected], [email protected]   Archived editions of PEBS Neuroethics News Round Up www.bioethicsinstitute.org/neuroethics

"Artistic Tendencies Linked to 'Schizophrenia Gene'"

New Scientist article here.

Phineas Gage Photo Found--UPDATED

Well, actually, it's a daguerreotype.  From an LA Times article:

Massachusetts photographers have unearthed the only known image of legendary brain-injury patient Phineas Gage, a daguerreotype showing the former railroad worker sitting in repose and holding the nearly 4-foot-long iron rod that pierced his brain without killing him.

Contemporary accounts suggest that Gage's personality was dramatically altered because he was disfigured in the accident, but the new image, to be published online next week in the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, shows a relatively handsome man -- confirming the belief of most experts that damage to his brain accounted for the changed personality.

I like how the second paragraph above connects the photo to our understanding of the famous case and not just to our morbid curiosity.  If you click on the small image of Gage in the L.A. Times article, you'll see a larger version.

Hat tip: Mind Hacks (which has some more to say about the photo).

Update: An emailer notes that a daguerreotype is considered a type of photograph.  So the first sentence of this post may have been misleading.

Gender and Chess Ability

Here is a recent study in the European Journal of Social Psychology:

Checkmate? The role of gender stereotypes in the ultimate intellectual sport

Anne Maass *, Claudio D'Ettole, Mara Cadinu

University of Padova, Italy

^*Correspondence to Anne Maass, DPSS, Universitò di Padova, Via Venezia, 8, 35139 Padova, Italy.

Abstract

Women are surprisingly underrepresented in the chess world, representing less that 5% of registered tournament players worldwide and only 1% of the world's grand masters. In this paper it is argued that gender stereotypes are mainly responsible for the underperformance of women in chess. Forty-two male-female pairs, matched for ability, played two chess games via Internet. When players were unaware of the sex of opponent (control condition), females played approximately as well as males. When the gender stereotype was activated (experimental condition), women showed a drastic performance drop, but only when they were aware that they were playing against a male opponent. When they (falsely) believed to be playing against a woman, they performed as well as their male opponents. In addition, our findings suggest that women show lower chess-specific self-esteem and a weaker promotion focus, which are predictive of poorer chess performance. (Hat tip: The Situationist)

Lobectomy as Performance Enhancement?

This New York Times article tells the story of ultra-long-distance runner, Diane Van Deren.  In 1997, she had a lobectomy to treat epilepsy.  While most of the article discusses her truly amazing athletic ability, the article briefly suggests that the removal of part of her brain has actually enhanced her ability to run:

“When she is running, it helps her,” Don Gerber, a clinical neuropsychologist who has worked extensively with Van Deren, said of the hole in Van Deren’s brain. “In the rest of her life, it does not.”

. . .

Van Deren can no longer read maps. Telling her to go five miles, turn left, then right, then left is a confusing algorithm. She rarely runs a race without a wrong turn. “Everyone knows not to follow me now,” she said.

Gerber, who works at Craig Hospital, a rehabilitation hospital in Englewood, Colo., for people with brain or spinal-cord injuries, said that Van Deren “can go hours and hours and have no idea how long it’s been.” Her mind carries little dread for how far she is from the finish. She does not track her pace, even in training. Her gauge is the sound of her feet on the trail.

“It’s a kinesthetic melody that she hits,” Gerber said. “And when she hits it, she knows she’s running well.”

The article also makes clear that she was already an impressive athlete before the surgery.  So if there is any enhancement effect, it's hardly clear.  And, of course, the surgery has also increased the likelihood that she'll make a wrong turn on one of her 100+ mile treks.  So, it may not be a net enhancement, if it's an enhancement in any sense.  Still, it's interesting to consider the possibility that one could enhance athletic performance by removing a part of the brain that makes us fearful of ultra-long athletic activity.