Or dead salmon?
By the end of the experiment, neuroscientist Craig Bennett and his colleagues at Dartmouth College could clearly discern in the scan of the salmon’s brain a beautiful, red-hot area of activity that lit up during emotional scenes.
An Atlantic salmon that responded to human emotions would have been an astounding discovery, guaranteeing publication in a top-tier journal and a life of scientific glory for the researchers. Except for one thing. The fish was dead.
Read here for a lengthy survey of the pitfalls of fMRI analysis. Via Mindhacks.
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4 comments
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December 23, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Anthony
I forgot where I first read it, but including a picture of a brain scan makes a popular science article seem much more credible to lay readers.
December 23, 2009 at 9:22 pm
jeff
yes i read the same thing. for a while i was working in a gratuitous diagram of the brain into all of my seminars.
December 30, 2009 at 8:58 am
Leigh Caldwell
I am currently carrying out an experiment to determine which part of the brain lights up when people in a lecture theatre are shown a picture of part of the brain lighting up.
My hypothesis is that it will be the “gullibility” region, located in the parietal lobe, which is believed to have evolved to assist with social cohesion and whose function is to lead us into greater levels of social trust than are justified by individual rationality. But don’t worry, if the evidence indicates something else we’ll fiddle the results.
December 31, 2009 at 5:41 pm
jeff
I look forward to reading your results.
Personally, whenever my brain lights up I make sure to shut it off because my Mother always taught me never to leave a light on in an empty room.