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A Neuroscience Library Helps Level the Legal Playing Field
Mass General Giving | October 14, 2024
In the second digital edition of Mindscapes: Inside Mass General Psychiatry, Mass General Giving highlighted the work of the CLBB NeuroLaw Library and its growing impact across the legal and policy landscape—from incarcerated persons writing their own appeals, to defense attorneys and prosecutors, judicial educators, and legislative staffers.
“Eliminating barriers to accessing reliable science and skillfully developed litigation materials and briefs is the first essential step toward democratizing access to science so it can be applied in legal and policy decision-making.”
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New Resource Aims to Bring More Adolescent Brain Science Into Juvenile Courtrooms
The Imprint | July 25, 2024
This article highlighted the CLBB NeuroLaw Library's ability to assist juvenile court defense attorneys, adolescent defendants, and their families through the use of its extensive resource base, from open-source journal articles to a glossary of legal and scientific terms and neuroscience knowledge that is digestible to the general public. NeuroLaw Library Director Stephanie Tabashneck, PsyD, JD stressed the importance of understanding how teenagers and young adults are prone to making risky decisions because of rapid physiological changes in their brains.
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Has Social Media Fueled a Teen-Suicide Crisis?
The New Yorker | September 30, 2024
In an article by Andrew Solomon, CLBB Founding Co-Director Judith Edersheim, JD, MD highlighted the detrimental effects that Instagram has on developing brains, likening the app's effects to putting adolescents in a twenty-four-hour casino and giving them chocolate-flavored bourbon.
"The relentlessness, the intrusion, it’s all very intentional...No other addictive device has ever been so pervasive.”
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This Supreme Court Is Its Own Worst Enemy
The New York Times | October 7, 2024
CLBB Managing Director Nancy Gertner, JD, MA co-wrote an op-ed with Stephen I. Vladeck, Georgetown University Law Center, on the declining credibility of the United States Supreme Court. The op-ed raises the question as to whether the court as a whole, and at least some of the individual justices, has stopped worrying about the impact of its behavior on public confidence in the institution.
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When Do People Become Adults? The Answer May Determine Who's Sentenced to Life Without Parole
News From the States | August 6, 2024
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Miller v. Alabama, establishing that judges cannot hand down sentences of life in prison without parole for minors without taking their age into consideration. Since that case, 28 states and Washington, D.C., have eliminated such sentences altogether, and there are hundreds of challenges across the U.S. arguing the same protections should be extended to those between ages 18 and 21. According to NeuroLaw Library Director Stephanie Tabashneck, PsyD, JD most of these cases are being grounded in their own state constitutions.
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Sleep Is a Human Right, and Its Deprivation Is Torture
AMA Journal of Ethics | October 2024
CLBB Project Director Caitlyn Tabor, JD, MBE and Katherine Peeler, MD, MA, Boston Children's Hospital, published a commentary exploring the intersection of sleep deprivation, human rights, and the role of medical professionals in addressing, identifying, and preventing sleep deprivation as a means of coercion and abuse.
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In Memoriam
July 25, 2024
In July, we lost founding Advisory Board Member, Joan Heilig Kahn, after a brief illness. Joan was devoted to CLBB and its mission, offering her wisdom, her energy, and her insight, as well as her home and her vast network of friends and admirers to help us create a more equitable and enlightened justice system. Joan was was central to building CLBB and pursuing excellence in our endeavors with her leadership, her philanthropy and her extraordinary grace. We will miss her terribly, but will carry her spirit with us as we pursue better decisions aligned with neuroscience to create better outcomes aligned with justice.
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George Washington University Law Review Symposium: The Survival of the Jury
George Washington University | October 25, 2024
Paul Butler, JD, Georgetown University, moderated a panel at the George Washington University Law Review Symposium for a conversation on The Survival of the Jury. This symposium critically assessed the past, present, and future of the jury in the U.S. legal system. The panels and guests addressed the historical and current reasons for juries and the causes of their decline, together with proposals for the future in a comparative light.
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Functional Unblinding in Pivotal Studies and the Future of Psychedelic Medicine
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry | August 21, 2024
Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, published a commentary discussing the critical issue of functional unblinding in clinical trials for psychedelic medicines, focusing on MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Functional unblinding is what occurs when participants or investigators are able to guess what treatment the participant is receiving because of the unmistakable effects of the drug.
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CRISPR: Challenges Posed by a Dual-Use Technology
John Hopkins University Press | 2024
Scientists and genetic engineers are becoming increasingly adept at editing the human genome. How far can—and should—they go in editing future generations? In The Promise and Peril of CRISPR, editor Neal Baer, MD, Harvard Medical School, brings together a timely collection of essays by influential bioethicists, philosophers, and geneticists to explore the moral, ethical, and policy challenges posed by CRISPR technology.
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APS William James Fellow Award
Association for Psychological Science | September 2024
Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, Northeastern University, received the 2025 APS William James Fellow Award for her significant contributions to the basic science of psychology. In particular, Barrett has revolutionized the science of emotion in psychology and neuroscience, contributing fundamental methodological, experimental, and theoretical innovations to our understanding of the nature of emotion.
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Optimizing the Implementation of a Lifestyle Dementia Prevention Intervention for Older Patients in an Academic Healthcare System
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease | July 12, 2024
Interventions that promote healthy lifestyles are critical for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD). However, knowledge of the best practices for implementing AD/ADRD prevention in healthcare settings remains limited.Olivia Okereke, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to implementing a clinical trial of a novel lifestyle intervention for at-risk older patients with subjective cognitive decline. Their study provides a blueprint for addressing multi-level barriers to the implementation of AD/ADRD prevention for older patients in medical settings.
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Predicting Suicides Among US Army Soldiers After Leaving Active Service
JAMA Psychiatry | September 25, 2024
The suicide rate of military service members increases sharply after returning to civilian life. Identifying high-risk service members before they leave service could help target preventive interventions. Jordan T. Smoller, MD, SCD, Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues found that suicides after leaving active service can be predicted with moderate to good accuracy using administrative data available before leaving service. Their research found that 10% of soldiers with highest predicted risk accounted for 30.7% to 46.6% of all suicides across horizons.
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Alterations in Fear Learning as a Mechanism Linking Childhood Exposure to Violence With PTSD Symptoms: A Longitudinal Study
Psychological Medicine | September 9, 2024
In a study utilizing a longitudinal sample of children with variability in adversity experiences, Margaret A. Sheridan, PhD, University of North Carolina, and colleagues examined associations among childhood trauma, fear learning, and psychopathology in youth. They concluded that childhood trauma is associated with altered fear learning in youth, which may be one mechanism linking exposure to violence with the emergence of PTSD symptoms in adolescence.
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An Examination of Episodic Future Thinking and Episodic Memory Among Suicidal and Nonsuicidal Adolescents
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology | October 16, 2024
Suicidal individuals experience ambivalent states where they simultaneously consider death and the continuation of their lives, but there is little understanding of how suicidal individuals, particularly youth, mentally construct their future lives. To address this knowledge gap, Daniel L. Schacter, PhD, Harvard University, and colleagues aimed to examine episodic future thinking and the related cognitive process of episodic memory among suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents.
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Evolving Perspectives on Wellness and Stress
Academic Psychiatry | July 3, 2024
Wellness and coping with stress have recently taken an important place in medical education. Eugene Beresin, MA, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues examined the inevitable presence of stress and discomfort in learning, and considered how to distinguish healthy stress from trauma.
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Sentencing Children: Bridging Neuroscience, Justice, and Reform
CLBB and Petrie-Flom Center | October 9, 2024
A thought-provoking discussion on the mass incarceration of children, adolescent neuroscience, and restorative justice. Panelists—a judge, a psychologist, and a lawyer rooted in restorative justice—shared their expertise on how we can align justice systems with science and pave the way for more humane and effective pathways forward.
Watch the recording of the event here.
Panelists:
Moderator: Stephanie Tabashneck, PsyD, JD, Senior Fellow of Law and Applied Neuroscience, Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, Massachusetts General Hospital and Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School; Licensed Psychologist and Attorney; and Director, CLBB Neurolaw Library
Honorable Nancy Gertner, JD, Senior Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School; Retired Federal Judge; Author; and Managing Director, Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, Massachusetts General Hospital
Melissa Wood Bartholomew, JD, MDiv, MSW, PhD, Associate Dean for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and Lecturer on Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Harvard Divinity School; and racial justice and healing practitioner
Robert Kinscherff, PhD, JD, Executive Director, Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, Massachusetts General Hospital; and Former Senior Fellow, Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School.
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Book Launch: Brain Science for Lawyers, Judges, and Policymakers
CLBB, Dana Foundation, and Shen NeuroLaw Lab | October 15, 2024
CLBB, the Dana Foundation Career Network in Neuroscience & Society, and the Shen NeuroLaw Lab co-sponsored a book launch for Brain Science for Lawyers, Judges, and Policymakers. Co-authored by CLBB Chief Innovation Officer Francis X. Shen, JD, PhD, this book responds to a rapidly changing legal landscape, providing a user-friendly introduction to the fundamentals of neuroscience for lawyers, advocates, judges, legal academics, and policymakers. Featured speakers at the event included Dr. Shen and CLBB Managing Director Judge Nancy Gertner (ret.).
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Neurotech Justice Accelerator at Mass General Brigham (NJAM), a Dana Center Initiative
We are excited to share that a new neuroscience and society initiative has started: The Neurotech Justice Accelerator at Mass General Brigham (NJAM), a Dana Center Initiative.
NJAM is led by three Co-Directors: neurosurgeon Dr. Theresa Williamson, MD, bioethicist Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, PhD, JD, and law professor Francis Shen, JD, PhD. NJAM will partner with many stakeholders across academia, industry, and the community.
NJAM is hiring for three full time administrative positions. These positions will put you on the front lines of neuroethics, neurolaw, and the many intersections of neurotechnology and society:
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Senior Program Manager (SPM): The SPM will be the lead member of the administrative leadership team. The SPM will have shared responsibility for all administrative, operational, and financial aspects of Neuro JAM. The SPM will be responsible for the development and execution of strategic operational objectives, administrative policies, and procedures, and for providing comprehensive, responsive, and effective services in the following areas: human resources, student appointments, payroll, financial management, community partnerships, vendor relationships, and communications. The SPM will also play a key role in creating the administrative infrastructure required to provide support to faculty, researchers, staff, and students at Neuro JAM. Click for more info and to apply.
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Program Coordinator: The Program Coordinator will support work with the Faculty Directors, Senior Program Manager, Fellows, and staff to coordinate training programs and activities. The Program Coordinator will also play a key role in working with the Senior Program Manager and Faculty Directors to create the administrative infrastructure required to integrate community engagement into the work of faculty, researchers, staff, and students at Neuro JAM. This role will also support programmatic activities including public-facing community events, and providing operational resources/support for new programs and activities. Click for more info and to apply.
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Communications & Event Coordinator: The Communications Coordinator will lead all communication efforts and events planning, including developing and maintaining the Neuro JAM website and newsletter; developing print and electronic materials; developing and executing the social media strategy; preparing design of reports, solicitation letters, mailings, blog posts, and flyers; and managing and executing events. Click for more info and to apply.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so consider applying as soon as possible.
Email info@neurotechjustice.org for questions and more information.
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