How neuroscience and behavioral genetics improve psychiatric assessment: report on a violent murder case.

ABSTRACT: Despite the advances in the understanding of neural and genetic foundations of violence, the investigation of the biological bases of a mental disorder is rarely included in psychiatric evaluation of mental insanity. Here we report on a case in which cognitive neuroscience and behavioral genetics methods were applied to a psychiatric forensic evaluation conducted on a young woman, J.F., tried for a violent and impulsive murder. The defendant had a history of multidrug and alcohol abuse and non-forensic clinical evaluation concluded for a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. We analyzed the defendant's brain structure in order to underlie possible brain structural abnormalities associated with pathological impulsivity. Voxel-based morphometry indexed a reduced gray matter volume in

SUBMITTER: Rigoni D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2965016 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature