New Webinars for Australasian Region “Forensic Issues in Neuropsychology: Brain Disorders and Criminal Behavior” and “Neuroethics and the Ethics of Neurocognitive Diagnosis”
The Luria Neuroscience Institute is pleased to announce a premiere of the two new webinars by Dr. Goldberg for Australasian Region.
The webinars are presented by Elkhonon Goldberg, Ph.D., ABPP., a clinical neuropsychologist and cognitive neuroscientist, and Diplomate of The American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology. His critically acclaimed and bestselling books have been translated into 24 languages.
Webinar “Forensic Issues in Neuropsychology: Brain Disorders and Criminal Behavior”
Various brain disorders may alter behavior in ways that result in behaviors judged by society as antisocial or outright criminal. Ultimately the judgment whether certain acts are criminal and to what extent (if any) a history of brain disorder is a mitigating factor, rests with the legal system. However, mental health professionals can make important contributions to these decisions in an advisory capacity. It is important to educate both mental health professionals and members of the legal profession about the many possible ways in which brain damage may contribute to criminal behavior. Socially aberrant behaviors are more common in certain brain disorders than in others; the manifestations may be different, and so are the underlying mechanisms. In this webinar we will review some of the conditions with which aberrant behaviors may be associated. These include dementias, neurodevelopmental disorders, traumatic brain injury,
seizures, space occupying lesions, neuropsychiatric disorders, and others. It is important for clinicians working with these populations to be aware of the potential for socially aberrant behavior, which may be predicated, entirely or in part, on the intrinsic properties of underlying brain disease and associated cognitive impairment and disinhibition.
Format: Online webinar. The webinar will be recorded and the recording will be available to registrants for multiple reviews at their convenience after the live event.
Date: February 12, 2025 (Wednesday), noon – 3 pm Australian Eastern Time
Fee: US $165 for a three-hour webinar. The webinar will provide CPD points for those attending.
Topics:
Relationship between neuropsychological and legal perspectives.
Frontal lobe dysfunction and aberrant behavior.
Criminal behavior in dementias: frontotemporal (FTD) and others.
Criminal behavior in traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Early life TBI as a risk factor for later-life criminality.
Aggression in temporal lobe epilepsy: real or imagined?
Space occupying lesions: arachnoid cysts and violent psychosis.
Is there a relationship between depression and aggression?
Schizophrenia and violence: is there a link?
Neurodevelopmental disorders: aggression and anger.
Webinar “Neuroethics and the Ethics of Neurocognitive Diagnosis”
Neuroethics is a new discipline addressing the ethical issues arising on the cutting edge of
neuroscience, both basic and applied. Neuropsychology is a discipline on the intersection of
psychology and neuroscience, with its own unique ethical issues. Some of these issues pertain
directly to the substance of neurocognitive evaluation and rehabilitation. In this webinar we will
examine the concept of neuroethics and its relationship to neuropsychology. First, we review
examples of neuroethics concerns from various aspects of neurosciences. We will then identify
and discuss a wide range of ethical issues specifically related to the substance and content of
neurocognitive assessment and rehabilitation. While these issues are not conventionally
regarded as part of neuroethics, in reality they are. It is important to bring neuropsychology into
neuroethics and neuroethics into neuropsychology. This is what this webinar aims to
accomplish.
Format: Online webinar. The webinar will be recorded and the recording will be available to registrants for multiple reviews at their convenience after the live event.
Date: February 26, 2025 (Wednesday), noon – 3 pm Australian Eastern Time
Fee: US $165 for a three-hour webinar. The webinar will provide CPD points for those attending.
Topics:
Neuroethics: definition, resources and examples of pertinent issues. Overdiagnosis driven by fads not facts. Example: ADHD overdiagnosis.
Misdiagnosis because no pigeonholes exist. Example: “memory based learning disability.” Perpetuating outdated notions. Example: “no dementia without memory impairment.”
Saying “somatoform” instead of saying “I don’t know.” Example: when “mild TBI “is not so mild.
Overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. Example: -1 standard deviation is still normal.
Being a detective at the expense of being a clinician. A malingerer can also be genuinely sick. Overgeneralizing. Example: drawing sweeping conclusions based on a single test.
Cultural insensitivity. Example: giving culture-dependent tests inappropriately.
Fabulizing. Offering interpretations well beyond the data. Intellectual arrogance: not knowing what you don’t know.
Making hasty assumptions about what the patient’s words mean to you and yours to the patient. Example: when the patent complains of poor “memory” they may mean anomia.
Relying uncritically on canned interpretations.
Overpromising the results of intervention.
