Behavioral & Neuroscience Law Committee (BNLC)

News and Research Blurb

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Sincerely,
James Andris
Eric Y. Drogin
BNLC Chair, Section of Science & Technology Law
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
877.877.6692
eyd@drogin.net
edrogin@bidmc.harvard.edu

Linda Berberoglu
BNLC Vice Chair, Section of Science & Technology Law
Fourth Judicial District Court,
Psychological Services Division
Minneapolis, MN
612.348.7182
linda.berberoglu@courts.state.mn.us
linda.berberoglu@wmitchell.edu

James M. Andris, Jr.

Editor, BNLC News and Research Blurb
William & Mary Law School, 2015
Williamsburg, VA
267.615.1399
jmandris@email.wm.edu

BNLC BlurbFebruary 2015

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SUBSTANCE ABUSE & ADDICTION

'Skunk-Like Cannabis' Increases Risk of Psychosis, Study Suggests. BBC. Smoking potent cannabis was
linked to 24% of new psychosis cases analysed in a King's College London study. The 780-person
study suggests that the risk of psychosis is three times higher for users of potent "skunk-like"
cannabis than for non-users. The research was carried out over several years and compared 410
patients who reported their first episode of psychosis at a south London psychiatric hospital with
370 healthy participants from the same London area. It also concluded that the use of hash, a milder
form of the drug, was not associated with the increased risk. (February 16, 2015)
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31480234
Why Cocaine Addicts Keep Making Bad Decisions. L.A. TIMES. A new study, published online in the
Journal of Neuroscience, could offer a biological marker for the cycle of destructive decisions that
addicts exhibit. Researchers measured EEG signals from a region of the midbrain associated with
reward prediction. Neurons in this region release and absorb more dopamine when things go better
than expected, less when events fail to meet expectations, and remain unperturbed when outcomes
match predictions. Researchers compared signals among people who do not use cocaine, who tested
positive for cocaine use within the previous 72 hours, and who habitually used, but did not test
positive in within the previous 72 hours. All 75 participants played a video game in which they
guessed which of four doors hid prizes. All cocaine users showed no significant difference between
expected and unexpected losses. This could explain why addicts will return to drugs despite the
negative impacts of incarceration and loss of money, friends and family. This may explain why it is
hard for users to respond to incentives to quit, and easy for them to relapse. (February 4, 2015)
http://tinyurl.com/ouvefaq
California Announces Campaign to Combat Use of E-Cigarettes. L.A. TIMES. Arguing that the rising
popularity of electronic cigarettes soon would undermine California's leadership in reducing tobacco
use, state health officials called for tighter regulation of the devices and announced an educational
campaign to combat their use. According to California's Department of Public Health report, Ecigarette use among young adults ages 18 to 29 in California tripled between 2012 and 2013. This ins
due, in part, to marketing campaigns that target younger audiences. Citing a number of studies, the
state's report also concluded that there was "no scientific evidence that e-cigarettes help smokers
successfully quit traditional cigarettes or that they reduce their consumption.". (January 28, 2015)
http://www.latimes.com/nation/healthcare/la-me-e-cigarettes-20150129-story.html
DECISION-MAKING & RESPONSIBILITY
Primed Memories Tempt People into Gambling More. SCIENCEDAILY. When reminded, or primed, of past
winning outcomes as part of a controlled test, people were over 15% more likely to gamble and
select the risky option. In the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, researchers
repeatedly presented participants with the choice of selecting one of two doors in a computerized
test. The doors, color coded, either led to guaranteed outcomes (different colors correlating with 0,
40, or 80 points) or a variable outcome (one color correlating with a 50/50 chance of 20 or 60
points. Each outcome was also paired with a unique image of a fruit, similar to those used in slot
machines. For example, the 80-point winning outcome might always be presented with cartoon
grapes. When researchers primed a round with a high-value fruit image, participants were more
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likely to choose the variable-outcome door. These results confirm how cues can promote gambling
and risky behavior. (February 3, 2015)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150203103911.htm
Psychologists Seek Roots of Terror: Studies Raise Prospect of Intervention in the Radicalization Process. NATURE.
Most extremists are motivated by disillusionment with society and a desire to find others who share
their values. But whether a disaffected person turns to a cult, gang or extreme ideology such as white
supremacism or jihad depends on his environment and social networks. Two new studies published
by Anthropologist Scott Atran suggest that extremism arises when membership in a group
reinforces deeply held ideals, and an individuals identity merges with the groups identity. Atrans
team interviewed 260 people in two Moroccan communities that have produced an unusually high
number of terroristsincluding five of the 2004 Madrid train bombing plotters. Many residents said
that they wanted to fight to establish an ISIS-backed Islamic government in Syria. Those who
believed in sharia, the Islamic code of law, said that they were willing to sacrifice for it in some way,
but the degree of potential sacrifice increased dramatically if an individual had fused with a group
with the same beliefs. Policy-makers have noticed Atrans research and are recruiting social scientists
as counterterrorism advisers. (January 20, 2015)
http://www.nature.com/news/psychologists-seek-roots-of-terror-1.16756
MENTAL ILLNESS
Violent Psychopaths Dont Register Punishment, Study Says. TIME. Violent psychopaths seem to have
abnormalities in the parts of the brain that learn from punishment, according to a new study
published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry. Using fMRI imaging, researchers looked at the brain signals
of 50 men: 12 violent offendersall with antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy who had
been convicted of murder, rape, attempted murder or grievous bodily harm, 20 violent offenders
with antisocial personality disorder but not psychopathy, and 18 non-offenders. While researchers
scanned their brains, the men completed an image matching test that measured their ability to
change behavior and choices based on feedback they were getting from the game. Scans of the
psychopaths brains showed abnormalities in brain areas where emotions like guilt, embarrassment
and moral reasoning are processed. Some of those abnormalities were linked to a lack of empathy.
The researchers hope their findings lead to the development of programs for parents who observe
callousness and repeated violent behavior among their children. (January 28, 2015)
http://time.com/3685596/psychopaths-brain-punishment/
MEMORY
How the Brain Stores Trivial Memories, Just in Case. N.Y. TIMES. A study published in the journal Nature
suggests that the surge of emotion that makes embarrassing, triumphant, and disappointing
memories so vivid can, over time, strengthen recall of seemingly mundane events that happened just
before the emotional memory. The study had several stages. In the first, participants sat in front of a
computer watching photographs scroll by, categorizing each photograph as a tool or an animal. Five
minutes later, the participants repeated the procedure, only this time with electrode wires attached to
their wrists. During this second round, half of the participants received a shock when they saw an
animal and half when they saw a tool. Researchers then tested the participants, measuring how well
they remembered all the photographs. Participants who took the test right away remembered as
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many tools as they did animals; the shocks had no apparent effect. But those who took the test six
hours later recalled about 7 percent more items from the shocked category. (January 21, 2015)
http://tinyurl.com/nr2e3r6l
Brain Recalls Old Memories Via New Pathways. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. People with anxiety
disorders, such as post traumatic stress disorder, often experience prolonged and exaggerated
fearfulness. A recent study suggests that this might result from a disruption of brain circuitry used to
retrieve fearful memories. National Institutes of Health researchers discovered that rats recall an old
fearful memory via a separate brain pathway than the pathway used to recall the memory when it
was new. After the researchers conditioned rats to fear a tone associated with a mild shock, they
observed that their behavior remained constant, but the neural structures engaged in remembering
the traumatic event changed. Immediately after conditioning, the rats engaged a circuit running from
the prefrontal cortex, the executive hub, to part of the amygdala, the fear hub, to retrieve the
memory. Days later, the retrieval pathway migrated to a different circuitfrom the prefrontal cortex
to an area in the thalamus, the paraventricular region (PVT). Researchers say that the PVT may
integrate fear with other adaptive responses, such as stress, thereby strengthening the elongated
fearfulness that PTSD patents suffer. (January 19, 2015)
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jan2015/nimh-19.htm
TRIAL-RELATED ISSUES
Patz Trial the Latest Where Mental Illness Clouds Confession. N.Y. TIMES. After a twelve-hour
interrogation, Douglas Warney confessed to murder and supplied details of the crime. At trial, New
York prosecutors pointed to these admissions as proof of guilt. However, Warney was innocent, the
confession a product of his own mental instability. Nine years after that exoneration, mental illness
clouds another confession. This time, prosecutors are seeking justice for Etan Patz, the 6-year-old
boy whose 1979 disappearance ignited fear among parents across the country. Police never found
Etan's body and have no physical evidence of his death, but prosecutors are pursuing a conviction,
based on Pedro Hernandezs 2012 confession that he lured Etan into a basement, choked him, and
dumped the body. Yet, the confessions veracity is tempered by historyHernandez's medical
records, dating back years, mention schizophrenia and he has been diagnosed with schizotypal
personality disorder. His lawyers and doctors say these conditions cause hallucinations, including
visions of his dead mother. (February 9, 2015)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/02/09/us/ap-us-patz-clouded-confessions.html
The Vanderbilt Rape Case Will Change the Way Victims Feel About the Courts. TIME. Two former
Vanderbilt University football stars have been convicted by a Nashville jury of aggravated rape and
aggravated sexual battery. The decision offers hope to victims of campus rape who, up until now,
have shied away from reporting assaults to the police. A recent study from the Justice Department
found that 80% of campus rapes went unreported to the authorities (compared 67% in the general
population). These victims are often in the position of living on the same campus as their assailant
and thus forced to encounter them on a day-to-day basis. Depending on the schools policies, filing
criminal charges against an assailant may not necessarily get him removed from campus, whereas a
quicker, quieter campus judgment can. (January 29, 2015)
http://tinyurl.com/lfoqae8

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VETERANS HEALTH
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia Reduces Suicidal Thoughts in Veterans. SCIENCEDAILY. A new
study, published in the journal Sleep, is the first to show that the treatment of insomnia in veterans is
associated with a significant reduction in suicidal ideation. Results show that suicidal ideation
decreased by 33 percent following up to six sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia
(CBT-I). Further analysis found that the reduction in insomnia severity achieved during CBT-I was
associated with a concurrent decrease in the odds of suicidal ideation. The evaluation included 405
veterans diagnosed with insomnia disorder and who received CBT-I in routine primary care and
mental health treatment settings. About 83 percent of veterans reported conflict experience,
including 150 who served in Vietnam and 83 who served in Iraq or Afghanistan as part of Operation
Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. (February 2, 2015)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150202114632.htm
IED Blasts Leave Distinct Scars. U.S. NEWS. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University believe that
the distinct scarring on the brains of soldiers exposed to IED blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan may be
the physical fingerprint of shell shock, a World War I veteran condition. For the study, published
in Acta Neuropathologica Communications, researchers examined the brains of five male U.S. military
veterans who survived IED attacks. The veterans brains were then compared to those of 24 people
who died of a range of causes, including motor vehicle crashes, opiate overdoses, and heart attacks.
The researchers used a molecular marker to track a protein called APP that normally travels from
one nerve cell to another via a long nerve fiber, or axon. When axons are broken by an injury, APP
accumulates at the break, causing swelling. In the brains of people killed in car accidents, the
swellings are large and bulb-shaped. The veterans brains displayed medium-sized axonal bulbs
arranged in a honey-comb pattern, a pattern which differs from brain damage caused by other
accidents. (January 29, 2015)
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2015/01/29/ied-blasts-leave-distinct-scars
FOREIGN POLICY
Top Court Says Canadians Have Right to Die, Strikes Down Ban. REUTERS. The Supreme Court of Canada
overturned a ban on physician-assisted suicide on Friday, unanimously reversing a decision it made
in 1993 and putting Canada in the company of a handful of Western countries to make it legal. The
Court said mentally competent, consenting adults who have intolerable physical or psychological
suffering from a severe and incurable medical condition have the right to a doctor's help to die. The
illness does not have to be terminal. The decision takes effect in 12 months. The case is Carter v.
Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 5. (February 6, 2015)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/06/us-canada-euthanasia-idUSKBN0LA1MX20150206

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BNLC BlurbFebruary 2015

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