The Social & Affective Neuroscience Society, which is committed to investigating the neural basis of social and affective process, will hold its 8th annual meeting on April 23-25, 2015 in Boston. This year’s Conference co-chair is Leah Somerville, member of the CLBB Faculty and the CLBB Juvenile Justice working group.

The Conference will be at the Revere Hotel (200 Stuart Street, Boston MA 02116). The conference will kick off with a Keynote Address from Dr. Michael Platt at 5 pm on Thursday, April 23, followed by a poster reception from 6:00 – 7:30 pm. Friday, April 24th and Saturday, April 25th will feature full days of programming, including symposia, posters, blitz talks, an optional lunchtime panel focusing on funding opportunities, and social events for networking.

For more details and to register, visit the SANS site.

Texas plans to execute a paranoid schizophrenic tomorrow. Activists are pleading with Governor Perry or the Supreme Court to intervene. Is this “cruel and unusual punishment”? How should the law handle mad people who commit capital crimes?

CLBB’s Dr. Judith Edersheim participated in a HuffPostLive conversation to discuss the insanity defense in light of the case of Scott Panetti, who was sentenced to die for the 1992 murder of his wife’s parents. At his murder trial, acting as his own defense lawyer, he dressed as a cowboy and called on Jesus, John F. Kennedy, and the Pope as witnesses. Panetti has been hospitalized many times since for psychosis and delusions.

View the conversation below, or on HuffPostLive, which also included Dahlia Lithwick, Slate legal affairs correspondent; George Parnham, criminal defense attorney; and Heather Beaudoin, of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. Josh Zepps hosted. Continue reading »