Brain Scans 'To Predict Future Criminals'

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Psychologist Dr Adrian Raine said recognising problems in a child's limbic system, which controls emotion, will allow scientists to predict future offenders and psychopaths.

"Seeds of sin are sown quite early in life," Dr Raine told a science conference in the US.

The British scientist, who is at the University of Pennsylvania, said three year olds with a poorly-functioning amygdala, a key part of the limbic system, were more likely to commit crime 20 years later.

Further research presented at the conference showed emotional problems, like "callous-unemotional" (CU), were hereditary.

CU traits are associated with a lack of emotion, empathy and guilt and are linked to persistent bad behaviour in young children.

After assessing more than 9,000 twins between the ages of four and 12, Dr Nathalie Fontaine concluded that genetics played a fundamental role in the emergence of CU traits, especially in young boys.

Dr Raine said that a time would come when "we are going to be able to predict reasonably well which individuals at a modest age say eight to 10 years old are predicated to become criminal offenders".

The scientist added people would have to decide whether or not to intervene at an early age to stop crime despite possible mistakes in predictions.

Omega 3 - a fatty acid that helps build brain cells - was identified as being able to reduce aggressive behaviour in children based on studies that have shown giving supplements to prison inmates cut serious offending by a third.

"Its very simple - bad brain, bad behaviour… improve brain functioning and you will improve behaviour," Dr Raine said.

http://bit.ly/gHCuxt

[Dunamis]

Politicians should be the first people tested. Seriously now, people with power should be tested first if such measures roll out. Before testing any children and/or babies adults should go first, in a pyramid way, from the top to the bottom.

No worries, there'll not be enough left in government to ensure everyone else gets tested

It is interesting to note that they also believe there are ways to reduce such traits, so in essence if someone has issues, then government could be found to be indirectly responsible for not doing more to ensure good nutrition for all (speaking of the UK here, I know the US is quite different and it's each man for himself in that respect).

Also, this is a sky news piece, so I really wouldn't add to much value to the article as far as relevance goes, as it's a "fear" based article, especially for libertarians.

[Telecaster72]

here we go again...





There must be another way for humanity than just going around in circles.

[hubbabubba]

(03-09-2011 12:27 PM)Telecaster72 Wrote:  There must be another way for humanity than just going around in circles.

Maybe it isn't. Maybe it's a plan spanning a long time into the past and into the future.

[FastTadpole]

Related:

Intel Wants Brain Implants in Customers' Heads by 2020
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=35096

Brain scans 'could be used to snoop on thoughts'
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=33313

Inside A Psychopath's Brain: The Sentencing Debate
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=33773

Brain scanners to be used to 'design' political candidates
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=31827

Psychic 'mind-reading' computer will show your thoughts on screen
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=87

Faulty Brain Connections Found Within the Brains of Psychopaths
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=1617

Hypnotism does change the brain
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=11080

This Is Your Brain on Advertising
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=14011

Brain scanning and influence is actually a mature technology. It's been proposed that the TSA use them to scan for terrorists.

DARPA could be way ahead of this technology already as it announced a project in Total Information Awareness (TIA) that's goals include:

- Biologically inspired algorithms for agent control.
- Human network analysis and behavior model building engines;
- Event prediction and capability development model building engines;

Among other things. Honeywell is working on a project called AugCog with DARPA and the DoD for use in soldiers to program, monitor and even physically

It is also being developed for commercial purposes such as advertising, education, human resource management, prison administration, wildlife management, elder care and medicine.

That was from a 2002 report brief.

I go into it deeper and the network of autonomous bio-cyber nanobots that are small enough, to even manipulate DNA on the base-pair level in this post.

HP & Shell to deploy Central Nervous System for Earth (CeNSE) via 1T Micro-Sensors
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?t...#pid215342

Get past being fascinated and/or fearful then let's put a stop to this.

[FastTadpole]

From IBM's 'Smart'Planet.. redistributed over ZDNet (CNet), so expect a whitewash/positive spin.

Quote:How to tell who’s a psychopath
By Tuan C. Nguyen | March 9, 2012, 5:50 AM PST

Whether it’s Ted Bundy or a fictional character such as Hannibal Lecter, psychopaths elicit within us a sense of morbid fascination.

How did they come to be? Are they born out of society’s failures or simply born evil? Recent evidence has shown that their brains appear to be wired differently than most people. Yet what makes them even more mysterious is that on the outside, they appear as inconspicuous as the next person.

However, a study now suggests that there may be a way to identify psychopaths and it involves simply recognizing certain patterns and words in their speech. The finding may make it possible to screen suspects and even enable law enforcement to develop better strategies to track down or interrogate suspects. Additionally, clinical psychologists can use such insights to formulate improved treatment programs.

To investigate whether there are actually “psychopathic tendencies” in the way a person talks, researchers at Cornell University compared stories told by 14 imprisoned psychopathic male murderers with those of 38 convicted murderers who were not diagnosed as psychopathic. Each subject was asked to describe his crime in detail; the stories were taped, transcribed and subjected to computer analysis.

The analysis showed that psychopaths are more likely than other criminals to use words that reveal a great degree of selfishness, detachment from their crimes and emotional flatness, the study found. These include conjunctions like “because,” “since” or “so that,” to imply that the crime “had to be done” to obtain a particular goal. Here are a few other notable differences:

* Psychopaths used twice as many words relating to physical needs, such as food, sex or money, while non-psychopaths used more words about social needs, including family, religion and spirituality.

* They were also more likely to use the past tense, suggesting a detachment from their crimes.

* They tended to be less fluent in their speech, using more “ums” and “uhs.” The exact reason for this is not clear, but the researchers speculate that the psychopath is trying harder to make a positive impression and needs to use more mental effort to frame the story.

However, the researchers caution that their analysis applies only to murderers relating the story of their own crimes, and called for further studies of speech patterns in more neutral situations, such as telling a neutral story from the subjects’ past or describing an incident shown to them on video.

“These findings on speech begin to open the window into the mind of the psychopath, allowing us to infer that the psychopath’s world view is fundamentally different from the rest of the human species,” the researchers concluded.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/thinking...path/10571

You can only imagine where else this could be applicable from marketing to social engineering.