Abstract

A recent Italian criminal case verdict heavily weighted on cognitive neuroscience methods as tools for improving the reliability of a forensic psychiatric assessment. highlighted. The court experts collected, for the purpose of evaluating a defendant for an eventual mental insanity, full neuropsychological, neuroimaging and molecular genetic assessment. As a consequence, the use of «classical» investigation (interview or psychopathological tests) is not enough. We report this case and the cognitive neuroscience logic which, here we claim, greatly improves over the clinical psychiatric evaluation of mental insanity based on the clinical interview.