ABSTRACT
Automatism has different meanings in medicine and psychology than it does in law. Strictly speaking, in medicine an automatism is a stereotyped repetitive and non-purposeful behaviour occurring during psychomotor seizures. The stereotyped behaviours of medical automatism arise from the central pattern generators. The central pattern generators may also be the source of the typical behaviour observed during parasomnias. The conditions that cause medicolegal automatism will usually be assessed and treated by doctors outside the subspecialty of forensic psychiatry. The main conditions that cause medicolegal automatism are those where the capacity for motor action are relatively preserved, but the executive capacities that regulate these actions are impaired. The courts may consider the question of risk–when the judge is considering how to direct the jury or deciding on disposal. The medical and legal literature on forensic sleep disorders is relatively sparse, partly due to the apparent rarity of serious harm to others during parasomnias.
