When it comes to brain scans, seeing may be believing, but it isn’t necessarily understanding.

The prime impetus behind this enthusiasm is a form of brain imaging called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), an instrument that came of age a mere two decades ago, which measures brain activity and converts it into the now-iconic vibrant images one sees in the science pages of the daily newspaper.

The problem is that the illuminated areas on the scan are activated by many other emotions, not just hate.

Criminal lawyers, not surprisingly, are increasingly drawing on brain images supposedly showing a biological defect that “made” their clients commit murder.

Here’s a spot that lights up when subjects think of God (“Religion center found!”), or researchers find a region for love (“Love found in the brain”).

Brain scan images are not what they seem either—or at least not how the media often depict them.

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

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

Studies that suggest a “brain spot for X” are typically misleading because mental functions are rarely localized to one place in the brain.