Dr. Alissa Call, associate professor of psychology at Black Hills State University, is shedding light on the role of neuroscientific evidence in courtroom decisions in her newly published chapter, “Neuroscience Evidence and Legal Decision Making,” in the book “Decision-Making in Life and Work.”
Call’s chapter is a comprehensive review of existing literature investigating neuroscience reports in court and explores how this evidence may influence courtroom decision-making. Neuroscience evidence includes expert witnesses, genetic tests, or imaging such as EEG, fMRI, and PET scans.
The literature review also relates to Call’s current research. “My area of research is in legal decision-making for criminal and civil cases, specifically sexual assault. I’ve spent over a decade studying extralegal factors that impact decisions in a court context,” said Call. “I’m intrigued by how people bring their life experiences into the courtroom and use their beliefs and attitudes as well as other factors outside of the case evidence to decide whether to convict an individual of a crime.”
Through her review, Call concluded neuroscience evidence does not appear to strongly affect the verdict in cases, but it does have a mitigating impact on sentencing decisions.
“I hope that the legal community will use the book chapter to help prepare for trial or that it will at least provide some support to attorneys when they have to make decisions on whether or not to present neuroscience evidence,” added Call. “It has been a few years since I wrote a comprehensive review, so it was fun. I enjoyed learning about this area of legal decision-making and am excited to dive into new research questions related to this topic with my undergraduate research team.”
Call’s chapter was published in “Decision-Making in Life and Work,” in July 2025. The book is edited by Dr. Todd McElroy, associate professor of psychology at Florida Gulf Coast University.