Neurolaw another branch of neuromythology? Free will? Free won't?

You may watch "Battle of Ideas: My Brain Made Me Do It" by clicking here. The panel you see there includes Professor Ray Tallis who wrote an article for The [London] Times titled "Why blame me? It was all my brain’s fault" about which I have blogged before. (A response to the article at Neuroethics & Law Blog.) Also on the panel is Jeffrey Rosen who wrote a NY Times article "The Brain on the Stand;" I blogged about that article here.

Watch and listen as the panelists discuss such concepts as free will, free won't, guilt, the amygdala, the frontal cortex, responsibility, lying, and the prediction of future behavior by examining the brain. They do not discuss the mind—and the distinction between the mind and the brain—which must be taken into account if we are to see the whole picture and engage in the full discussion.

Image credit: T_Savage at photobucket

Note (added December 5, 2007, 2:50 PM Mountain): Here's another possible branch for the neuromythology tree: neuropolitics. At Neuroethics & Law Blog, I learned of a

opinion piece in the LA Times "Getting inside their heads ... really inside" proposing that we should look at the brains of our presidents searching for pathology. From the blog post

Today's opinion piece in the LA Times by SPECT imager Daniel Amen proposes that all behavioral mishaps by past presidents and current candidates are due to their dysfunctional brains, and that we should "take a look" to ensure that the next president is one of the "brain-healthiest" people around.

. . .

Amen claims that three of the last four presidents had some sort of brain dysfunction. . . .

I say amen to guest blogger Emily Murphy's conclusion about Amen's notions:

While we should indeed be concerned about the overall health and cognitive capacities of our elected leaders, the claim that we should submit them all to brain-scanning procedures is absurd, particularly given the questionable prognostic accuracy of single-subject SPECT scanning for psychological disorders other than those involving gross neuropathology.  Amen must be trying to ride the neuro-political wave on the tails of the recent (derided) NYT op-ed and drum up some new business for his SPECT scanning operation.  The over-hype of neuro-based technologies, particularly with regards to the political process, represents irresponsible use of editorial powers.