Of Bits and Brains: Neurolaw, Brain Imaging, and Brain Activity During Punishment Decisions

Event time: 
Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location: 
Room 120 See map
Event description: 

ABSTRACT

Brain imaging technologies offer information about information. Specifically, they offer new windows (of varying transparency) into the human brain’s information-processing activities.

This talk addresses the interaction of brain imaging technologies with law. It will illustrate some of the rapidly developing capabilities by discussing experiments by our interdisciplinary team to discover patterns in brain activities during mock punishment decisions.

BIO

Owen D. Jones, a graduate of Yale Law School, is the New York Alumni Chancellor’s Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, where he is also a Professor of Biological Sciences. He currently serves, in addition, as Director of the national Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, funded by grants from the MacArthur Foundation.

His scholarship – both empirical and theoretical – bridges law, biology, and behavior. His work has been published in leading scientific journals, as well as in major law reviews, and has been covered in, among others, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. Those interested in learning more, before the talk, about the intersection of law and neuroscience may wish to read “Brain Imaging for Legal Thinkers: A Guide for the Perplexed” or “Law and Neuroscience in the United States”.

Other works by Prof. Jones can be found here.