Raine et al (1997), Classic study (BP)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To find out whether participants pleading NGRI (not guilty for reasons of insanity) would show brain dysfunctions in areas of the brain associated with violence.

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

• 2 weeks prior to the experiment no drugs were allowed to be taken, tested thtough a urine test
• Each participant given radioactive tracer injection 32 years after trace injected. Participants had to do series of tasks on a computer.
• Immediately after the task, the PET scans were taken and took 10 images of the brain at 10 mm intervals

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

• Shown that Murderers have significantly lower activity in the lateral and medial prefrontal cortex, corpus callosum, parental cortex, left hemisphere of the amygdala, and the hippocampus compared to the control.
• Murderers have high activity in the right hemisphere of thalamus, amygdala and hippocampus.

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

• Murderers pleading NGRI have different brain activities than people who are not violent.
• Also suggests no single brain area is related to violent behaviour but other factors like environmental and psychological factors can also affect aggression.

Question 5

Strength

Answer 5

I - Raine’s study shows high levels of control in the procedure.
J - Participants were carefully and specifically matched to one another (6 murderers had schizophrenia to six controls were matched who also had schizophrenia) And all participants went through the same procedure of having the tracer injected in them and then having to complete the metabolism light up task on the computer. 2 weeks prior to the experiment no drugs were allowed to be taken, tested thtough a urine test
**E - **This means that the study had high levels of internal validity, as drugs and mental issues that could have affected brain activations during the tasks were all controlled for, therefore the relationship between brain activity and violence can be fairly measured between participants. .

Question 6

Weakness

Answer 6

I - However, other key elements were not controlled for. 23 of the murderers had suffered from head injuries.
J - the impact of the head injury could cause for the brain actvitiy to differ from the control group who didn’t have a head injury
E - Researchers cannot be absolutely certain that other factors other than just brain structure could have lead to the violent behaviour.