NOTEBOOKattempted or committed murder—both
offenses that got a “homicide” label in
their dataset.
People charged with felony mur-
der—meaning that they had commit-
ted a serious felony that was in some
way connected to a person’s death, even
though they hadn’t intended to kill the
victim—and people whose cases indi-
cated considerable doubt about a judg-
ment of homicide were not counted
among murderers. And occasionally,
people were moved from another cat-
egory into the homicide group, Kiehl
says. The researchers excluded people
with abnormal radiology reports, trau-
matic brain injury, or diagnosed psy-
chotic disorders from the study.
Controlling for substance use severity,
time in prison, age, and IQ, the team
analyzed the MRI data to look for dif-
ferences among the study participants.
Compared with the other two groups,
the 200 men who had committed homi-cide showed significantly reduced gray
matter in several brain regions that
play important roles in behavioral
control and social cognition (Brain
Imaging Behav, doi:10.1007/s11682-
019-00155-y, 2019).
“I think that the intriguing thing
was, first, that they found a difference,”
says Hannes Vogel, a neuropathologist
at Stanford University Medical Center
who was not involved in the work. “And
second of all, that it correlates with
some of the brain centers that deal with
behavior and social interaction.”
Lora Cope, a neuroscientist who
studies substance disorders at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, notes in an email
to The Scientist that the team’s mobile
MRI system has now been used in cor-
rectional facilities all over New Mexico
and Wisconsin, and “has really revolu-
tionized this area of research.” Indeed,
the MRN has now used the equipment
to collect roughly 6,500 scans frommore than 3,000 research participants
since its first outing in 2007.
Although Cope wasn’t involved in the
current project, she worked with Kiehl
a few years ago while earning her doc-
torate at the University of New Mexico.
After speaking with members of the Avi-
elle Foundation, named for a six-year-old
victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elemen-
tary School shooting, the two research-
ers spearheaded a study of more than
150 incarcerated young males, 20 of
whom had been convicted of homicide,
held at a maximum-security detention
facility within the state. “Jeremy, [Avi-
elle’s] father, really wanted to know if
there was anything neuroscience could
tell us about boys who commit homi-
cide,” says Kiehl.
As in the current study, Cope and
Kiehl deployed the mobile scanner to col-
lect MRI scans of the incarcerated teens
in New Mexico and discovered differ-
ences between those who had committedYOU ARE NOT A ROBOT...
SO DON‘T ACT LIKE ONE
FREE YOURSELF FROM
ROUTINE PIPETTING
YOU ARE NOT A ROBOT...
SO DON‘T ACT LIKE ONE
FREE YOURSELF FROM
ROUTINE PIPETTING
http://www.integra-biosciences.comMaking hands-free serial dilutions, reagent additions and sample reformatting
very affordable for every lab. Compatible with all Integra‘s electronic pipettes
from 4 to 16 channels for consistent results and unbeatable ergonomics.
VIAFLO - Electronic Pipettes VOYAGER - Adjustable Tip Spacing PipettesVOYAGER - Adjustable Tip Spacing PipettesVOYAGER - Adjustable Tip Spacing PipettesVOYAGER - Adjustable Tip Spacing PipettesASSIST PLUS Automating Multichannel Pipettes
VOYAGER - Adjustable Tip Spacing Pipettes