Department of Neurology, Division Behavioral Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, A-0118 Medical Center North, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA.
Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2018 Jun 14;18(8):47. doi: 10.1007/s11910-018-0853-3.
Criminal behavior occurs in previously law-abiding neurological patients, including patients with traumatic brain injury, focal brain lesions, and dementia. Neuroimaging abnormalities in these patients allow one to explore the potential neuroanatomical correlates of criminal behavior. However, this process has been challenging because (1) It is difficult to determine the temporal relationship between criminal behavior and neurological disease onset; (2) Abnormalities in several different brain regions have been associated with criminal behavior; and (3) It is difficult to quantify neuroimaging abnormalities in individual subjects.
Recent studies have begun to address these concerns, showing that neuroimaging abnormalities in patients with criminal behavior localize to a common brain network, rather than a single specific brain region. New methods have been developed to identify atrophy patterns in individual patients, but have not yet been used in neurological patients with criminal behavior. Future advances will be important for making sure that neuroimaging data is used in a responsible manner in legal cases involving criminal behavior.
犯罪行为发生于先前遵纪守法的神经科患者中，包括创伤性脑损伤、局灶性脑病变和痴呆患者。这些患者的神经影像学异常使人们能够探索犯罪行为的潜在神经解剖学相关性。然而，这一过程具有挑战性，原因在于：（1）难以确定犯罪行为与神经疾病发病之间的时间关系；（2）与犯罪行为相关的异常存在于几个不同的脑区；（3）难以量化个体受试者的神经影像学异常。
最近的研究开始解决这些问题，表明犯罪行为患者的神经影像学异常定位于一个共同的脑网络，而不是单个特定的脑区。已经开发出了新的方法来识别个体患者的萎缩模式，但尚未在具有犯罪行为的神经科患者中使用。未来的进展对于确保神经影像学数据在涉及犯罪行为的法律案件中以负责任的方式使用非常重要。
