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posted by mrpg on Tuesday July 03 2018, @08:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the "electro-tomy" dept.

Electrical brain stimulation may help reduce violent crime in future – study

It could be a shocking way to treat future criminals. Scientists have found that a session of electrical brain stimulation can reduce people's intentions to commit assaults, and raise their moral awareness.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore explored the potential for brain stimulation to combat crime after noting that impairment in a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex has been linked to violent acts.

They recruited 86 healthy adults and gave half of them 20 minutes of brain stimulation before asking the whole group to read two hypothetical scenarios, one describing a physical assault, the other a sexual assault. Immediately afterwards, the participants were asked to rate the likelihood that they might behave as the protagonist had in the stories.

For those who had their brains zapped, the expressed likelihood of carrying out the physical and sexual assaults was 47% and 70% lower respectively than those who did not have brain stimulation. In the first scenario, Chris smashes a bottle over Joe's head for chatting up his girlfriend, and in the second, a night of intimate foreplay leads to date rape.

[...] Using a procedure called transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, [Prof. Olivia] Choy and her colleagues Adrian Raine and Roy Hamilton at the University of Pennsylvania, delivered a 2 milliAmp current to the prefrontal cortex of volunteers to boost the region's activity.

Stimulation of the Prefrontal Cortex Reduces Intentions to Commit Aggression: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Stratified, Parallel-Group Trial (DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3317-17.2018) (DX)

Related: How Brain Implants (and Other Technology) Could Make the Death Penalty Obsolete
Study Uses Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Improve Piloting Abilities
Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation Could Speed Learning by 40%
Stanford Scientists Use Electric Jolts to Prevent Impulsive Behavior
Washington State Fusion Center Accidentally Releases Records on Remote Mind Control


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @11:30PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @11:30PM (#702236)

    Pretty sure our dystopian reality today was a bipartisan effort. Republicans took the lead on some aspects, Democrats on others.

    The Patriot Act and DMCA shit was the real downturn for freedom in the US. Sadly the majority of people did not see a reduction in their personal daily freedoms so the outrage didn't really go anywhere.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @12:46AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @12:46AM (#702278)

    Pretty sure our dystopian reality today was a bipartisan effort.

    You mean greed and trying to remain in power are two things both sides can agree on? Imagine that.