Technology
Much of neurolaw depends on state-of-the-art medical technology that has been adapted to a new role in the legal system. Among the most prominent technologies and disciplines are functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET scan), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and epigenetics. MRI and fMRI are particularly important because they allow detailed mapping of the human brain, potentially allowing technicians to visualize another person's thoughts. FMRI, a derivative of MRI, allows for oxygen-specific mapping to view the most active areas of a brain at a specific moment. Combined with the knowledge of how the brain works in different situations (lying, remembering, etc.), there is the potential to use functional neuroimaging evidence as a modern form of lie detection. Similarly, PET scans use a radioactive tracer injected into the body to analyze brain tissue.
Read more about this topic: Neurolaw
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.”
—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)
“Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“Primitive peoples tried to annul death by portraying the human body—we do it by finding substitutes for the human body. Technology instead of mysticism!”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)