Criminally Insane and Jennifer Aniston on the Brain?

The New York Times has an interesting article on neuroscientists’ growing ability to map the human brain, in much the same way they geneticists have mapped the human genome.  Human brains are much too complicated and work much more quickly than modern computers can analyze them.  Scientists can take MRI’s of the brains of rats, and they have an effective map of the cornea (the window to the brain), but have only recently started to be able to map the brains of humans. 

Doctors are making great strides with epileptic patients, who can only be helped if a doctor severs misfiring parts of the brain.  “Because the brain has no pain receptors, patients are awake and can describe what they are experiencing as their neurons are stimulated – something a mouse cannot do.” Doctors literally zap neurons while patients are awake. And they can stimulate parts of the brain and ask what people see.

The Times reports that there is a specific Jennifer Aniston neuron:

Her own neuron? Impressive

 The neuroscientists “found a neuron that would fire when it saw a picture of Jennifer Aniston,” Dr. Sanes said. “It wouldn’t fire for any of the other people from ‘Friends’ or a table or a car.”

What evolutionary edge a person gets from such a neuron awaits more study.

It is now believed that diseased circuits cause diseased brains, which we experience as psychiatric disorders.

She's cute, but I wouldn't think that cute.

The scientists' point seems to be that the brain has specific neurons for specific people or things,and that's fascinating.  Then they tried to take it to criminal law and the idea of criminal insanity and culpability and there it gets less fascinating.

The Times asks what that means for criminal culpability.  It is the old nature versus nurture debate.  It’s the question of if someone’s brain is “messed up” do they deserve criminal culpability.  We have long had criminal laws for insanity and competency. If someone does not know what they are doing is wrong, they aren’t punished for it, but they are locked up for treatment, if they have committed a crime while insane. If they are not sane, but know what they did was wrong, for whatever the reason (think John Hinckley – the man who shot Reagan – who said he did it because Jodie Foster wanted him to do it, and cemented the change in the insanity defense across the country), they are not deemed "criminally insane," even if what they said is completely nuts.  

Nicki Minaj: taking up brain space

The law hasn’t been concerned with which neuron triggered the insanity, be it the Jennifer Aniston neuron or the Jodie Foster neuron and I doubt it will.  The law is concerned criminals know what they did was wrong - even if their reasons for doing it were completely nuts.  Whether it was one neuron or a series of neurons doesn't seem to matter much.  

But it is interesting that Jennifer Aniston has her own neuron.  Nicki Minaj likely has a host of them in my brain.