Brain scanners trying to pinpoint our virtues within
— -- Images that purport to show — in living color — the parts of the brain that generate such virtues as compassion, fairness and wisdom are invading turf that was once reserved for philosophers, theologians and psychologists.
From morality to math, a revolution in "functional" magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which observes brain blood flow, is being used by researchers to pinpoint the pieces of the brain that people rely on to think and feel.
So, what's the problem?
"A lot of these claims are just crazy," says neurophysiologist Nikos Logothetis of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. "There is a fundamental mismatch between what these images are showing and what cognitive scientists are claiming for these studies."
Here's a sampling of fMRI tests from recent news releases:
•University of Florida researchers asked 12 volunteers to have an fMRI while watching ads for Coca-Cola, Evian and Gatorade "to find out how people really feel about something."
•University of Wisconsin researchers reported that when 16 Tibetan monks meditated inside an fMRI machine, the images showed "brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion meditation."
•Researchers at Emory University scanned the brains of Zen meditators in Atlanta and reported that experienced practitioners can clear their minds of distractions more clearly than novices.
•University of Illinois and California Institute of Technology researchers asked people who were having an fMRI to share or take away meals from hypothetical Ugandan orphans "to shed light on the underpinnings of moral decision-making."
Such endeavors make fMRI experts nervous, says bioengineering professor Kenneth Foster of the University of Pennsylvania.
"The relation between brain activity and the kinds of things that people want to use fMRI for — lie detection, detection of consumer preferences — is complex and indirect," Foster says. "At best it gives a crude indication of brain activity."
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