Deciding how to spend $10 million presents an exciting challenge for Vanderbilt researchers.
The grant, awarded earlier this month by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will enable research to examine how courts should deal with new brain-scanning techniques as they apply to matters of law.
"The research Vanderbilt had already been doing in with its world-class neuroscience program and facilities such as the Institute of Imaging Science helped put Vanderbilt in the forefront of this opportunity," said law professor Owen Jones.
The project, led by Jones, also involves several other Vanderbilt faculty members, including Rene Marois, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience; Jeff Schall, Ingram professor of neuroscience and director of the Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience; and law professor Erin O'Hara.
More than two dozen researchers at other universities also are involved.
Jones and the decision-making team will examine choices that lead to criminal behavior, exploring the neurological side of emotion, choice, risk, inhibition and temptation.
The group will study brain activity using a highly sensitive technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, which looks at the parts of the brain that are most active when a person performs a specific task or has a specific thought.
The team will also analyze the decisions of legal experts, such as judges, juries, witnesses and lawyers, to see whether biases affect the decisions they make about crime and punishment.
A class that started this semester also will examine the link between these two fields.
One of the students, graduate student Cristina Cerkevich said the class has explored "insightful" subjects.
"I hope the grant will help the ways science impacts society and furthers bridges the communication gap between neuroscience and law," Cerkevich said.