Vanderbilt University

In 2011, Vanderbilt University established the Foundation’s Research Network on Law and Neuroscience (the Network), a distinguished interdisciplinary group of practitioners, researchers, and scholars in law, philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience dedicated to a program of research, education, and outreach activities that focuses on how neuroscience can help the legal system assess criminal responsibility. The Network’s major projects have addressed three crosscutting areas of inquiry: mental states (using brain imaging to classify and detect the mental states and decision-making processes in defendants, witnesses, jurors, and judges); capacity (conducting neuroscientific studies to assess the relationship between adolescent brain development and cognitive capacities related to criminal responsibility); and evidence (evaluating the admissibility of neuroscientific information into the courtroom and its application in individual cases). The final award enables the Network to complete current research projects, leverage existing resources to seek new research funding, and plan and execute communications strategies to advance law and neuroscience as a field for research and scholarship to improve the criminal justice system.

To provide significant support for the new Initiative on Neuroscience and the Law, whose goal is to create the evidence base for the next generation of criminal law and justice policy that reflects the advances contributed by neuroscience to understanding the brain and the underlying mechanisms of behavior and decision-making.

To support the research network on Law and Neuroscience (over three years).

In support of an Initiative on Neuroscience and the Law (over three years).

In support of an Initiative on Neuroscience and the Law (over three years).