Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience

allow investigators to conclude that structure X “causes” function Y. This is not what fMRI alone can demonstrate. Instead, it at best indicates only correlation—that is, which parts of the brain are active when a person participates in a particular task—not which brain area is causing a particular

A fifth caveat stems from the fact that fMRI is an indirect method. Contrary to popular belief, imaging does not measure action of brain cells per se.

“neurocentrism”—the view that human experience and behavior can be best explained from the predominant or even exclusive perspective of the brain.

see neuroscientists as the “new high priests of the secrets of the psyche and explainers of human behavior in general.”

Neuroscientists now think of the brain as an ever-changing ecosystem crackling with electrochemical energy from which our thoughts, emotions, and intentions arise, rather than a collection of blinking neural islands.

“Three Problems in the Marriage of Neuroscience and Education,” Cortex 45 (2009): 544–545; and Larry Cuban, “Brain-Based Education—Run from It,” Washington Post, February 28, 2011,

Instead, it means simply that one cannot use the physical rules from the cellular level to completely predict activity at the psychological level.

A first cousin of naive realism, neurorealism denotes the misbegotten propensity to regard brain images as inherently more “real” or valid than other types of behavioral data.

For example, there is a delay of at least two to five seconds between activation of neurons and the increase in oxygen-rich blood flowing to them.

“The only thing different about neuroscience,” according to Morse, “is that we have prettier pictures and it appears more scientific.”