Raine

Question 1

What was Raines aim?

Answer 1

To show that the bargains of murderers who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity were different from brains of non murderers.

Question 2

What was Raines hypothesis?

Answer 2

That seriously violent individuals would have relatively localised brain dysfunction in areas such as the:
Pre frontal cortex
Amygdala
Thalamus

Question 3

Who were the participants?

Answer 3

41 murderers pleasing not guilty by reason of insanity (39 men 2 women)
41 matched control group (none had committed a murder)
Both groups had 6 schizophrenics
All referred to the university of California Irvine imaging centre

Question 4

What was the independent variable?

Answer 4

Whether the participant is an NGRI to murderers or a non-murderers in the control group.

Question 5

Where were the dependent variables?

Answer 5

-relative glucose levels in the pre frontal cortex.
-other lobes of the brain.
-amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, medico-temporal lobe.

Question 6

Was this a natural experiment?

Answer 6

Yes because the IV is naturally varying and the controls were matched on age and sex.

Question 7

What were the experimental controls?

Answer 7

-All offenders were in custody and were kept medication free for two weeks.
-The control group were matched with participants in great detail.

Question 8

Materials involved

Answer 8

-Thermoplastic head holder-individually modelled to hold subjects head. Improves images and increases reliability.
-PET scanner-image brain functioning, colour map of brain activity is generated by machine
-FDG-tracer injected intravenously to trace brain metabolism

Question 9

What was the step by step procedure?

Answer 9

1) 10 minutes before FDG injection, participants were given practice CPT test for best ability.

2)30 seconds before injection the real task started so initial task novelty would not be recorded.

3) monitored for 32 minutes and were scanned in PET scanners.

4)brains were scanned 10 times at 10mm intervals. (To pick up differences in glucose metabolism in cerebral cortex and sub-cortical layers)

5)brain regions were identified using two techniques
Cortical peer technique (lateral areas) box technique (medial areas)

Question 10

What were the overall results of the task?

Answer 10

There was no significant difference in the task performance between the two groups.
Evidence of significant difference in brain metabolism of glucose in a number of areas

Question 11

What were the results for the frontal lobes?

Answer 11

Reduced glucose metabolism relative to controls in both lateral (left,right) and media (middle) pre-frontal cortical areas.

Question 12

What were the results in the parietal lobes?

Answer 12

Had lower glucose metabolism meaning they were less aware of what they were doing.

Question 13

Wha was the results for them corpus callosum?

Answer 13

Had lower glucose metabolism therefore harder to make decisions.

Question 14

What were the results in the limbic system (amygdala)?

Answer 14

There were abnormalities- reduced metabolism in the left but greater in the right.v
Makes it harder for murderers to manage emotions.

Question 15

What was the overall conclusion?

Answer 15

Brains of murderers pleading NGRI are different to non-murderers.

Question 16

What was the conclusions regarding the pre frontal deficits?

Answer 16

Damage to this results in impulsivity, lack of self control, immaturity and inability to modify behaviour. This will in turn to facilitate aggressive acts.

Question 17

What was the conclusions regarding the deficits in the amygdala?

Answer 17

The limbic system is repeatedly associated with aggressive behaviour in both animals and humans.
Abnormalities in the amygdala could be relevant to a fearlessness theory of violence based on findings of reduced autonomic arousal in offenders.

Question 18

What was the conclusions regarding deficits in the parietal lobes?

Answer 18

They have been correlated with reduced ability and deficits in arithmetic and reading.

Question 19

Wha can these findings show ands now show?

Answer 19

They cannot be taken to demonstrate that violence is determined by biology alone but violent behaviour is controlled by areas of the brain even though we cannot be certain that their violent behaviour was caused by these abnormalities.

Question 20

How is this study low in generalisability?

Answer 20

It was studies in California and done in a. Controlled environment with special equipment.
This is culturally bias and cannot be applied to other countries, it might not be accessible in other settings.

Question 21

How is this study high in generalisability?

Answer 21

There was 39 males and 2 females, showing a variet of gender in the sample.
Using both genders to study increases the generalisability, providing insights that might apply to a wide range of people.

Question 22

How is the study high in reliability?

Answer 22

-The tests were standardised for each participant, lasted 32 minutes.
This increased internal reliability as participants did the same CPT task for 32 minutes.
-they experiences the same procedure under the same conditions, ensuring consistency in how brain activity was measured.

Question 23

How can the study be applied to real life?

Answer 23

The study found that murderers who pleased NGRI shared differences in brain activity particularly in areas like the amygdala.

This suggests damage in these areas can be identified early and could help prevent violent behaviour in the future.

Interventions could be designed to address rain damage and proceed support for conditions like schizophrenia, reducing the risk of violent crime.

Question 24

Why was the study low in task validity/mundane realism?

Answer 24

The pre scan task had no bearing on violent behaviour.
Perhaps in a violent task (that activated the areas of the brain of interest to researchers) there would be even more differences displayed then in the non-violent task.

Question 25

How is the study low in validity?

Answer 25

NGRIs are not necessarily charged with murder because of a violent acts.

While Raines study provides valuable information about brain abnormalities associated with aggression, it doesn’t prove that these differences directly leads to violent acts.

Question 26

Why can the ethics of this study be questioned?

Answer 26

Due to the informed consent given by murderers pleading NGRI.

The participants may not have fully understood the nature of the study or the implications of their consent due to their mental health conditions.

This erased concerns about whether consent was truly informed.