法医学心理学ジャーナル

概要

Psychiatry Neuropsychology

Mendon Brocea

Forensic Neuropsychology is a new and rapidly evolving subspecialty of clinical neuropsychology that applies
neuropsychological principles and practices to matters that pertain to legal decision-making. Forensic
neuropsychologists provide the trier of fact with specialized information regarding brain-behavior relationships. The
primary responsibility of the forensic neuropsychologist is to provide information based on scientifically-validated
neuropsychological principles and clinical methodology that is pertinent to the Forensic Question at hand—which is
not just whether the patient has dysfunction, but whether the dysfunction results from the event under
consideration. To best answer the Forensic Question, the neuropsychologist must use a methodology that has been
scientifically-validated on brain-impaired individuals, and can distinguish various brain conditions from each other as
well as from normal variation. The methodology must be able to determine whether any dysfunction found is, in fact,
the result of a neurological condition as opposed to non-neurological, psychological, or even factitious disorders. This
paper discusses neuropsychological methodology in the context of forensic application and the requirements of the
legal process and illustrates these issues with case examples.