Thanks for downloading the More or Less podcast from the BBC.

For the next three weeks, we've got something a little different for you brain-y, More or

Less regulars.

As part of a season of Radio 4 programs, exploring the rise of neuroscience, the former

number 10 Downing Street head of strategy, Matthew Taylor, presents Brain Culture.

In the first of his series exploring how neuroscience will change society, he asks

how the justice system will change, now that we can scan criminal brains.

Imagine a world where our institutions, our social attitudes, and even the way we think

of ourselves are influenced by our understanding of how brains work.

Welcome to Brain Culture.

Over recent decades, neuroscience and related disciplines have been the fastest growing

areas of scientific inquiry, and now this work is coming out of the laboratory and

started to change the world around us.

How about the scientists who are exploring the anatomy of evil?

The brains of criminal psychopaths?

The types of crimes they commit are wide-ranging.

They include everything from simple drug possession and use all the way up to cold-blooded murder.

It's just now that we understand how their brains are different and how really dramatically

different they truly are, that has a very powerful influence on the legal system, for example.

That's Dr Kent Keel.

He wants the legal system to see criminals even serial killers differently.

In the first of three programs, I'll be exploring controversial new ideas of a criminal

...