Brain Imagistic Investigations and Electroencephalography in Forensic Psychiatry

Abstract

Forensic psychiatry is a complex expertise domain that is required to objectify human antisocial behavior and bring quantitative arguments to the law regarding discernment. The law expects clear and undeniable evidence when investigating a criminal offence. Still, there are many subjective elements in the process of evaluating one’s psychological and cognitive state, especially when evaluating discernment at the moment of the crime and not at the moment of evaluation. Psychological test batteries, standard examination protocols and multiple forensic board presentations should eliminate possible errors but more investigation techniques could increase the efficiency of the forensic psychiatric report. As such, this article proposes a literature review over the imagistic and electroencephalographic (EEG) examinations that could open new perspective for standard forensic psychiatric protocols. Absence of discernment, organic pathologies and severe psychiatric disorders were left out of the subject of this article, focusing on personality, behavior and affective disruptions.