key research

• two conclusions from raines study

  1. murderers pleading not guilty for reason of insanity (NGRI) have a significant difference in the metabolism of glucose
  2. the reduced activity in the prefrontal areas may explain impulsive behaviours
• a result from Raines study

  pre frontal cortex - lower activity than controls - this can be linked to a loss of self-control and altered emotions
• aim 


  to study the brain activity in murderers and non-murderers using PET to find out whether there are differences in areas thought to be involved in violent behaviour
• hypothesis


  that violent offenders will have relatively localised brain dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex, angular gyrus, amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus and the corpus collosum and no dysfunction is expected in other areas of the brain
• method


  quasi experiment
• dependent variable


  was whether the participant showed evidence of brain dysfunction in their prefrontal cortex and other areas such as the angular gyrus, amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus and the corpus callosum.