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

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.

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.

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

There is no newly discovered collection of brain regions that are wired together in such a way that they comprise the identifiable neural counterpart of hatred.

To repeat: It’s all too easy for the nonexpert to lose sight of the fact that fMRI and other brain-imaging techniques do not literally read thoughts or feelings.

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.

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