Week 6 The Introduction for my first draft

The introduction:

1. Attracts the audience.
2. Explains the topic.
3. Declares the thesis of your argument.

 

 

 Introduction :
 

  Reading human mind is a frequent material that is used in SF movies such as X-man series. Besides, magicians can read or pretend to read human mind by using various magic tricks. However, is reading human mind an impossible thing in real life that can only happen in the movie? Lots of scientists have studied for a long time to make reading human mind possible. As a result, various methods like brain scanning and a lie detector have been suggested for reading human mind. If these methods are used in crime related area, people can know whether the criminal is lying or not when he or she is making statement. Also, it is expected to be possibe to know the possiblity of second conviction of criminals after their release. However, the effectiveness of these methods, especially brain scanning, is still a matter of debate. Accordingly, there is a variety of opinion about whether these methods can be used in professional areas. Brain scanning is an effective way to pick our criminals.

 

Research 3 : Criminal Minds Are Different From Yours, Brain Scans Reveal

Source: Criminal Minds Are Different From Yours, Brain Scans Reveal
http://www.livescience.com/13083-criminals-brain-neuroscience-ethics.html

My Topic:
Brain Scan can help catching criminals.

 
What I hope to learn from this source:
I want to get more evidence except information about ACC from this source.

Notes:
1. Scientists study 21 people with antisocial personality disorder(a condition that characterizes many convicted criminals.) When the scientists compared the brain scans of the antisocial people, they showed on average an 18percent reduction in the volume of the brain's middle frontal gyrus, and a 9 percent reduction in the volume of the orbital frontal gyrus.

2. In another study, scientists compared 27 psychopaths to 32 non-psychopaths. Researchers could observe deformations in the brain part named the amygdala(seat of emotion). The psychopaths showed a thinning of the outer layer of that region,called cortex and 18 percent volume reduction in this part of brain.

3. According to many researches, many of the brain differences can be measured early on in life, long before a persong might develop into actual psychopathic tendencies or commit a crime. Also, the studies showed that these traits are not fixed.

4.Fontaine's studies suggest that kids who display callous and unemotional traits don't respond as well to traditional parenting and punishment methods such as time-outs. Instead of punishing bad behavior, programs that emphasize rewarding good behavior with positive reinforcement seem to work better.

Final Thoughts:

I could get information about various studies of the brain differences between criminal and ordinary human.

 

research

The URL that I'm going to check for my research

http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2011/jan/21/lying-brain-lie-detector-test

http://www.livescience.com/13083-criminals-brain-neuroscience-ethics.html

http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/NewsView.do?SEARCH_NEWS_CODE=2544676&retRef=Y&source=http://search.naver.com/search.naver?sm=tab_hty.top&where=nexearch&ie=utf8&query=MRI뇌범죄자&&source=http://news.kbs.co.kr/world/2012/10/02/2544676.html

http://www.lawtimes.co.kr/LawNews/News/NewsContents.aspx?serial=49909

http://blog.yes24.com/blog/blogMain.aspx?blogid=plantbact&artSeqNo=3248292 (Korean website)

Week 3: Articulation

Articulation


1) My argument
I want to argue that brain scan should be used to pick out criminals who have high possibility to recommit a crime. Many scientists argue that they can get information about the possibility of second conviction by studying some part of the brain with brain scan. So, I want to show the effectiveness of brain scan.

2) How I found my argument
While finding some research question that is related to 'Human Mind'. I thought about the difference between serial criminal's brain and ordinary poeple's brain. However, I could find that I can't write a persuasive essay with this topic. While doing research about this topic , I could get information about the brain scan, so I changed my topic to 'Brain scan should be used to pick out criminals who have high possibility to recommit a crime.' As I continued researching, I could read many articles that talk about the limits of brain scan, such as the limits of studying ACC. So, I couldn't decide whether to change my topic or not, but I made my mind to hold my opinion.  
 

3) New research questions
I have several questions that need to be resolved.
a) How can I prove the effectiveness of brain scan?
b) Is there any more information except information about ACC that can support my idea?
c) Is there any information that can refute opponent's opinion about ACC's insufficiency?
I will continue finding information that can satisfy my questions and support my idea.

4) Connections to the Harvard Sampler
This argument has connection to the Harvard Sampler, especially 'chapter 1. Human mind. ' According to the book, human mind has connection to human brain and my topic is about human brain. Also, the book mentioned about the information that scientists can get from the brain MRI and my argument is related to brain scan.

Research2 : Brain scans predict which criminals are more likely to reoffend

Source:Brain scans predict which criminals are more likely to reoffend http://www.nature.com/news/brain-scans-predict-which-criminals-are-more-likely-to-reoffend-1.12672

My Topic:
We should use brain scan to catch criminals.
 

 What I hope to learn from this source:
From the previous research, I could get information about specific brain part named anterior cingulate cortex(ACC). So, I want to know more about its function.


Notes:
1. There are more studies that can support my idea. Dystopian science fiction of writer Philip K. Dick and a neuroscientist at the non-profit Mind REsearch Network in Albuquerque, Kend Kiehl also insisted that brain scan can be used to find criminals.

2. The opponents can say that the part of the ACC examined in the studis is one of the most frequently activated areas in the human brain across all kinds of tasks and psychological states. Low ACC activity could have a variety of causes- impulsivity, caffeine use, vascular health, low motivation or better neural efficiency- and not all of these are necessarily related to criminal behaviour.

3. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a small region in the front of the brain involved in motor control and executive functioning

Final Thoughts:

I could get information about the role of ACC, but according to the text, there is a limit to use ACC as the only support information for my idea. So, I should find more information that can support my idea.

 

Research1 : Can We Predict Crime Using Brain Scans?

Source:
Can We Predict Crime Using Brain Scans? 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-illuminated/201304/can-we-predict-crime-using-brain-scans

 

My Topic:
We can use brain scan to catch criminals.
 
What I hope to learn from this source:
I want to know whether brain scan can really find criminals out. If brain scan can find criminals, I want to know how they can find criminals.

Notes

1. Postdoctoral scientist Eyal Aharoni, working at the University of New Mexico studied about criminal's brain by using brain scan. During the scan, the criminals performed some kinds of test(To press the button whey they saw X, and not to press the button whey they saw K). According to the result, impulsive people have a more difficult time preventing themselves from pressing a ‘K’ so they make more errors than the average person.   

2.After the criminals were released, Eyal kept an eye on that criminals for 3 years. More than half of them committed violent crimes again. So, Eyal compared the brain scans that they did before release. As a result, prisoners with the least activation in the anterior cingulate cortex during the task were most likely to commit a crime in the three years after being released-(Brain part named anterior cingulate cortex is related to the difference of criminal's brain)
 

3.The level of brain activation can also predict how long it would take before the person committed the crime.
 

Final Thoughts:
I could get information of reliable experiment which can support my idea(= brain scan should be used to catch criminals.) However, I want to find more information that can support my idea. Also, I still have question about how people can find criminals by using brain scan.