Raine Study

Question 1

what was the aim?

Answer 1

To discover if murders who have pleaded no guilty by reason of insanity show evidence of brain abnormalities

Question 2

What type of scan did the study use?

Answer 2

PET

Question 3

What was the sample?

Answer 3

39 Males and 2 females charged with murder , pleading NGRI compared with 41 poeple used as controls

Question 4

How were the participants matched to the control group?

Answer 4

• By age and sex

- also those with schizophrinia were matched with someone with the condition with no record of murder

Question 5

what type of designdid the experiment use?

Answer 5

Matched pairs design

Question 6

what were both groups kept free from for 2 weeks before the brain scanning?

Answer 6

Medication

Question 7

what were all the participant injected with?

Answer 7

A glucose tracer

Question 8

what was the continuous performance task based around and hoow long did they do it for before given the PET scan?

Answer 8

• was based around target recognition

- for 32 minutes

Question 9

what were the NGRI compared on with the control group?

Answer 9

level of activity in the right and left hemispheres of the brain

Question 10

how many selected area of the brain were monitored for activity?

Answer 10

14

Question 11

What are cortical areas of the brain and how many were monitered from this area?

Answer 11

• Part of the cerebral cortex which is the otermost layer of tissue
• 6 areas here were studied

Question 12

what are subcortical areas and how many areas here were studied?

Answer 12

• Brian structures below the cortex

- 8 areas here were studied

Question 13

what 4 lobes are in the cerebral cortex?

Answer 13

• prefrontal
• pariental
• temporal
• occipital

Question 14

what was observed from the study in the cerebral cortex areas when the NGRI were compared to the control group?

Answer 14

• It was found that the NGRI’s were found to have less activity in their prefrontal and pariental lobes
• More activity in the occipital lobe
• the same level of activity in the temporal lobe

Question 15

what was observed in the subcortical areas when the NGRI were compared to the control group?

Answer 15

• less activity in the corpus callosum
• imbalance of activity between the 2 hemispheres in 3 other subcortical structures
• In the amygdala and hippocampus they had less activity in the left side and more activity in the right side
• In the thalamus they had more activity in the right side but no difference in the left side

Question 16

what did Reine conclude?

Answer 16

he concluded that the differneces in activity in the amygdala between murders and non-murders supports theories of violence and suggests its due to unusual emotional responses such as lack of fear
-It was also commented on theat the corpus collosum activity difference could be matched up with evidence from people with a severed corpus collosum which showed they can have inapproriate emotional expression and an inability to grasp long-term implications of a situation