The intention to commit violence, sexual aggression reduced by zapping the brain with the current

As the number of cases related to violence, physical and sexual assault continues to increase around the world, an international team of researchers has shown that there could be a "neuroscientific" response to the problem – zap the brain with electric current. 19659002] The idea of ​​using electrical current on a person's brain might sound a little too much, but the team has demonstrated that the method, used in a controlled and less invasive way, can awaken the moral conscience of an individual and reduce the intention to commit hate crimes. The whole, as the team has described, revolves around stimulating the prefrontal cortex or the part of the brain that controls behavior and complex ideas.

Study showing the electrical brain stimulation can reduce the intention of committing violent acts. In the photo, Hong Gi Kim of South Korea competes in the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) race at the Cybathlon Championships in Kloten, Switzerland on October 8, 2016. Photo: REUTERS / Arnd Wiegmann

In the past, studies have shown that people involved in violent crimes have impaired prefrontal cortex, suggesting a link with aggressive intentions

. Adrian Raine, the co-author of the latest work, said in a statement: "It's important, but the search for brain imaging and genetics has also shown that half of the variance in the violence can be attributed to biological factors. "

Thus, in an attempt to focus on the role of the brain, Choy and his colleagues turned to minimally invasive electrical brain stimulation. They used more than 80 individuals and applied a controlled electrical charge on half of them for about 20 minutes.

Once the test was done, the group was confronted with two hypothetical scenarios of aggression. The first case detailed a physical assault where Charlie crushed a bottle on Joe 's head to chat with his girlfriend, while the other mentioned a date rape.

As the subjects finished their scenarios, the researchers asked that they behave as the protagonist in these cases and how morally they felt after keeping them in each of the two scenarios. They were asked to rate the possibility on a scale of 1 to 10.

The analysis of the results of the survey found that people who had electrical stimulation expressed 47% (for physical aggression ) and 70% (for sexual assault) minus the probability of carrying out such attacks that people who have not been zapped. [194590] [194590] [19459] Comparison of groups after electrical stimulation. The blue bar refers to those who received DC stimulation, while the red refers to those who did not receive it. Photo: Choy et al., JNeurosci (2018)

Promising results suggest that giving impetus to activity in this part of the brain by electrical stimulation could prove crucial for reducing L & L Intention to commit violent crimes, but the researchers pointed out that they need more work to confirm the possibility and come up with an applicable and scalable solution.

"This is not the magic bullet that will wipe out the aggression and the crime". "But can direct transcranial stimulation be proposed as an intervention technique for first-time delinquents to reduce their likelihood of resuming a violent act?"

They noted that the job had to be replicated for later more answers. This could even reveal how the technique would be applied in the long run, say for three times a week for a month.

The study entitled "Stimulation of the prefrontal cortex reduces the intentions to commit aggression: a double randomization. -Blind, placebo-controlled, stratified, parallel-group trial, "was published on July 2 in the Journal Of Neuroscience.