Srinagar, Oct. 3 -- By Zobiya Bhat

A brain scan enters a courtroom like a map enters a disputed territory, useful and incomplete and easily mistaken for the ground itself.

Courts already set these images beside witness accounts and forensic reports. The practice is called neurolaw, and it invites judges to weigh what the brain reveals about impulse, memory, intention and control.

Understanding neurological injury, developmental stage or prolonged stress can sharpen judgments about accountability.

The graver risk is that the image starts to replace the person it describes.

Criminal law has long assumed that someone who knows an act and chooses it bears responsibility. Brain injuries, neurological disorders and developmental difference...