News and Commentary Archive

Explore recent scientific discoveries and news as well as CLBB events, commentary, and press.

Mission

The Center for Law, Brain & Behavior puts the most accurate and actionable neuroscience in the hands of judges, lawyers, policymakers and journalists—people who shape the standards and practices of our legal system and affect its impact on people’s lives. We work to make the legal system more effective and more just for all those affected by the law.

Using Data to Predict Fate: Future Insight or Folly?

Data that can predict future outcomes has the potential to impact society by improving social services, medicine, and law.  How should we use such data? What are the limitations? What are the risks? This upcoming Harvard Mind Brain Behavior panel will discuss the promise and challenge of predictive data. CLBB Co-Director Dr. Judith Edersheim is a featured panelist, and Faculty Member Dr. Joshua Buckholtz will moderate the discussion.

This event will be held on February 9, 2017 in Harvard University’s William James Hall, B1 (33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA), from 5:45-6:45 pm. A reception will follow the event. More information can be found here.

This event is sponsored by the Harvard Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative. 

WATCH — The Mayhem of a Misdiagnosis

Click poster to RSVP.

In this event, the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior will present a case that concerns a tragic trajectory caused by undetected brain disease and the interpersonal and larger societal havoc that can be wreaked by a misdiagnosis. Weaving a narrative that highlights the subject’s personal life and neurological decline, experts in psychiatry, law, and neurology will consider: what can be done to prevent the mayhem of a misdiagnosis?

This event will be held on Tuesday, March 7, 2017, at Interface (140 W. 30th Street, New York, NY), from 6:00-8:00 pm.

Make sure to RSVP before the event!

This event is co-sponsored by New America and the MGH Center for Law, Brain & Behavior. 

Watch video of the entire event below!

How to Become a ‘Superager’

By Lisa Feldman Barrett | The New York Times | December 31, 2016

Think about the people in your life who are 65 or older. Some of them are experiencing the usual mental difficulties of old age, like forgetfulness or a dwindling attention span. Yet others somehow manage to remain mentally sharp. My father-in-law, a retired doctor, is 83 and he still edits books and runs several medical websites.

Why do some older people remain mentally nimble while others decline? “Superagers” (a term coined by the neurologist Marsel Mesulam) are those whose memory and attention isn’t merely above average for their age, but is actually on par with healthy, active 25-year-olds. My colleagues and I at Massachusetts General Hospital recently studied superagers to understand what made them tick. Continue reading »