Brain scans are increasingly able to reveal whether or not
you believe you remember some person or event in your life. In a new study
presented at a cognitive neuroscience meeting today, researchers used fMRI
brain scans to detect whether a person recognized scenes from their own lives,
as captured in some 45,000 images by digital cameras. The study is seeking to
test the capabilities and limits of brain-based technology for detecting
memories, a technique being considered for use in legal settings.
“The advancement and falling costs of fMRI, EEG, and other
techniques will one day make it more practical for this type of evidence to
show up in court,” says Francis Shen of the University of Minnesota Law School,
who is chairing a session on neuroscience and the law at a meeting of the
Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) in San Francisco this week. “But
technological advancement on its own doesn’t necessarily lead to use in the
law.” But as the technology has advanced and as the legal system desires to use
more empirical evidence, neuroscience and the law are intersecting more often
than in previous decades.