The neurocognitive effects of simulated use-of-force scenarios

Donald M. Dawes, Jeffrey D Ho, Andrea S. Vincent, Paul C Nystrom, Johanna C Moore, Lila W. Steinberg, Anne Marie K. Tilton, Michael A. Brave, Marc S. Berris, James R. Miner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

While the physiologic effects of modern conducted electrical weapons (CEW) have been the subject of numerous studies, their effects on neurocognitive functioning, both short-term and long-term, are less well understood. It is also unclear how these effects compare to other use-of-force options or other arrest-related stressors. We compared the neurocognitive effects of an exposure to a TASER® (TASER International, Inc, Scottsdale, AZ) X26™ CEW to four other use-of-force scenarios during a training exercise using a well-established neurocognitive metric administered repeatedly over 1 h. Overall, we found that there was a decline in neurocognitive performance immediately post-scenario in all groups, but this effect was transient, of questionable clinical significance, and returned to baseline by 1 h post-scenario.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)9-17
Number of pages9
JournalForensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2014

Keywords

  • CEW
  • Conducted electrical weapon
  • Fight
  • Flight
  • K-9
  • Neurocognitive
  • Oleoresin capsicum
  • Pepper spray
  • TASER
  • Use-of-force

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