Brain imaging, the legal process and neurofantasy; can it be cured (by applying the principles of evidence – based medicine)?
Authors
Peter Sandercock and Joanna Wardlaw
* Professor of Medical Neurology, Director of Edinburgh Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh. ** Professor of Applied Neuroimaging, Director of SFC Brain Imaging Research Centre, University of Edinburgh.
Advanced brain imaging techniques, originally designed for medical and basic science research purposes, are now being applied in a much wider range of settings for very diverse purposes. There is a concern that some of the exaggerated claims for the utility of these technologies in these new settings, combined with their inappropriate use (or uncritical interpretation) may lead to a variety of unintended and sometimes adverse consequences. We propose that the principles of critical appraisal, developed for assessing medical technologies (so called ‘evidence-based medicine’), might usefully be applied to reduce the risk of such unintended consequences. In this article, we discuss how these principles might be relevant to the application of neuroimaging techniques to various aspects of the law and the legal process.
