Zur Aussagekraft von Neuroimaging-Befunden im Strafprozess

Over the last 30 years the forensic use of brain scanning technology in court has increased considerably. In the U.S. about two thirds of opinions involving positron emission tomography/single photon emission computed tomography (PET/SPECT) evidence are ruled admissible in court and often have a decisive impact on judges and juries. Undoubtedly, the impressive progress in modern functional imaging techniques has improved the differentiated knowledge on the neural basis of discrete aspects of crime-related cognition and behavior. However, there are several general issues which make it difficult to draw individual deductions concerning behavioral patterns from functional imaging results. By analyzing cases from the courtroom, the question will be addressed as to how far neuroimaging-based expert opinions are really supported by concrete findings in neurobiological research.     

A method to monitor upper limb movement direction encoding in the corticomotor pathway

ABSTRACT Abnormal shoulder and elbow muscle coactivation patterns, or muscle synergies, are commonly present following stroke and may arise through dysfunctional descending neural control from the cortex. The authors evaluated a novel technique for examining corticomotor movement encoding of the upper limb in three dimensions. A 6-degree-of-freedom loadcell recorded arm twitch responses in healthy adults following stimulation over the cortex or over Erb's point in the periphery. Stimuli were delivered while the arm generated a 5 N preload in each of the 6 axial directions. The initial force twitch response to stimulation was used to construct twitch direction vectors for each preload direction. General linear mixed model analyses were used to determine the influence of stimulation location, preload direction, posture, and stimulation intensity on twitch direction. Cortical stimulation gave rise to arm twitch responses that were predictably modified by preload direction. Peripheral stimulation elicited stereotypical twitches that were not influenced by preload. Our stimulation, recording, and analysis techniques were able to capture movement encoding of the upper limb in three dimensions. Such techniques could be utilized in the stroke population to determine and monitor the presence of upper limb synergies during muscle activation.     

Need for more evolutionary and developmental perspective on basic emotional mechanisms

Lindquist et al.'s meta-analysis focuses on adult humans; the authors' emotion model might be strengthened by considering research on infants and animals, highlighting the importance of the limbic system. Reliance on the James-Lange theory is questionable; emotions typically occur instantaneously, with dubious dependence on bodily feedback for affect. Stronger evidence for localization might be obtained using more precise emotion terms and alterative localization methods.     

An evaluation of the consequences of using short measures of the Big Five personality traits

Researchers often use very abbreviated (e.g., 1-item, 2-item) measures of personality traits due to their convenience and ease of use as well as the belief that such measures can adequately capture an individual's personality. Using data from 2 samples (N = 437 employees, N = 355 college students), we show that this practice, particularly the use of single-item measures, can lead researchers to substantially underestimate the role that personality traits play in influencing important behaviors and thereby overestimate the role played by new constructs. That is, the use of very short measures of personality may substantially increase both the Type 1 and Type 2 error rates. We argue that even slightly longer measures can substantially increase the validity of research findings without significant inconvenience to the researcher or research participants.     

Prevalence of ADHD and its subtypes in male and female adult prison inmates

There are few published studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adult inmates, and even fewer studies that have considered ADHD in adult inmates by gender. The present study examined the prevalence of ADHD, its subtypes, and associated psychological and neuropsychological comorbidity as a function of gender in a sample of 3,962 inmates (3,439 men and 523 women; mean age = 33.6 years, range 17-73) who had completed the 250-item, self-report, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (Text Revision) (DSM-IV-TR)-aligned Coolidge Correctional Inventory (CCI). The overall ADHD prevalence rate found was 10.5%, which is substantially higher than the rate among adults in the general population (2-5%). The female inmate ADHD prevalence rate (15.1%) was higher than the male inmate ADHD rate (9.8%), consistent with some previous studies. The most prevalent ADHD subtype for both genders was the hyperactive-impulsive subtype. The combined and inattentive ADHD subtypes had higher levels of comorbid psychopathology than the hyperactive-impulsive ADHD subtype. As the presence of ADHD and associated gender differentials may impact the success of rehabilitation and educative programs with inmates, the assessment of ADHD and comorbid psychopathology should be a priority in initial inmate screening and evaluation.     

Assessment of Disgust Sensitivity in Children With an Age-Downward Version of the Disgust Emotion Scale

The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Disgust Emotion Scale for Children (DES-C). Principal components analysis of the DES-C data revealed five factors reflecting disgust toward (a) rotting foods, (b) injection and blood, (c) odors, (d) mutilation and death, and (e) animals, which were largely in keeping with the intended subscales. The DES-C showed good reliability, excellent convergent validity (as established by correlations with an alternative self-report index of disgust), fairly good predictive validity (as assessed by correlations with measures of fear/anxiety and a behavioral index of disgust), and acceptable parent–child agreement (in particular with the mothers). Importantly, the DES-C proved to perform better on some psychometric indicators than an age-downward version of the Disgust Scale. These findings indicate that the DES-C should be regarded as the preferred scale for measuring disgust sensitivity and its role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety problems in children.     

The categorical and the hypothetical: a critique of some fundamental assumptions of standard semantics

The hypothetical notion of consequence is normally understood as the transmission of a categorical notion from premisses to conclusion. In model-theoretic semantics this categorical notion is ??truth??, in standard proof-theoretic semantics it is ??canonical provability??. Three underlying dogmas, (I) the priority of the categorical over the hypothetical, (II) the transmission view of consequence, and (III) the identification of consequence and correctness of inference are criticized from an alternative view of proof-theoretic semantics. It is argued that consequence is a basic semantical concept which is directly governed by elementary reasoning principles such as definitional closure and definitional reflection, and not reduced to a categorical concept. This understanding of consequence allows in particular to deal with non-wellfounded phenomena as they arise from circular definitions.     

Cerebral lateralization in individuals diagnosed as autistic in early childhood

Early infantile autism was found to be associated with an atypical pattern of cerebral lateralization. Based on EEG measures of hemispheric activation during cognitive processing, it was found that 7 of the 10 autistic individuals tested showed a pattern of hemispheric specialization rarely seen in the normal population; namely, a “reversal” in lateralization reflective of a lack of left-hemisphere specialization for linguistic functions. Furthermore, the autistic individuals' pattern of cognitive strengths and weakness is suggestive of a selective impairment of the left cerebral hemisphere.