TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Brain Power Boosts Gamers, but Could Also Indict Criminals

R. Colin Johnson | Date: 01-25-10 | Comments

Researchers claim that the best gamers have bigger brains, but that tapping thought power with neurolaw could incriminate suspects against their will.

Researchers this week revealed that the best video gamers could be reliably predicted by measuring the size and weight of their brain.

The new study in the journal "Cerebral Cortex" claims that performance on a video game can be correlated with the volume of specific brain structures in the cerebral cortex.

Separately, the new journal "WIREs Cognitive Science" claims that a new field called "neurolaw" could determine suspects' guilt by "reading their minds" from brain scans.

Using the characteristics of our brain as indicators of mental performance, and our criminal intentions from its content, is of increasing interest to researchers worldwide. The researchers in the "Cerebral Cortex" study claim that almost a quarter of the variability among video gamers' performance can be traced to the volume of specific parts of the cerebral cortex, namely the caudate nucleus and the putamen in the dorsal striatum, and the nucleus accumbens in the ventral striatum.

These brain structures were already known to relate to motor skills, as well as the ability to learn new procedures, develop useful strategies and react quickly to a changing environment. This new study, however, marks "the first time that we've been able to take a real world task like a video game and show that the size of specific brain regions is predictive of performance and learning rates," said professor Kirk Erickson at the University of Pittsburgh. Also contributing to the work was professor Ann Graybiel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), professor Arthur Kramer at the University of Illinois and professor Walter Boot at Florida State University.

The caudate nucleus and putamen are involved in motor learning, and the nucleus accumbens is involved in the emotions associated with reward and punishment. But should reward and punishment be meted out depending on the "intentions" in our brain and memories?

The article titled "Neurolaw" in the debut issue of "WIREs Cognitive Science" tries to answer the following questions:
- What if a jury could decide a man's guilt through mind reading?
- What if reading a defendant's memory could betray his or her guilt?
- What constitutes "intent" to commit murder?
In "Neurolaw," co-authors Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Annabelle Belcher assess the potential of cognitive science to revolutionize the legal system in a manner similar to DNA evidence�that is, by offering objective proof of assertions that were previously open to interpretation by jurors.

As cognitive science becomes increasingly accurate at "reading minds" with tools such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the traditional polygraph lie detector will likely be replaced with high-tech derivatives that can detect lies more accurately. These "brain fingerprinting" techniques seek to detect a brain's electrical oscillation signature (BEOS), which may be capable of detecting "guilty knowledge" of crimes.