Growing concerns about commercial uses of fMRI (brain scans)

It would seem that the concerns depicted in our previous post are widespread indeed! The last issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, published by the MIT Press, is just out. Martha Farah introduces it with an editorial, basically a two-page warning. Abstract: Unrealistic, financially motivated claims about functional brain imaging can have a negative [...]

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Statistics in fMRI studies: mere voodoo?

“Do you think the media are partly responsible for sensationalizing the findings of social neuroscience? And how can the media do a better job of reporting on brain scanning data? Ed Vul: In general, I would advocate a bit more skepticism on the part of reporters, with respect to all scientific findings. I think reporters [...]

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fMRI and brain images: is it real science?

That’s the 2nd part of a three-easy-steps-guide to neuroeconomics (see previous post). As is obvious if you ever perused through an article in neuroeconomics, brain images have a central role in social neuroscience. So a question that is often asked in the corridors and conference rooms is how trustful those visual representations are. In particular, [...]

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