Word: brained
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Harris tested how the brain responded to assertions in seven categories: mathematical, geographic, semantic, factual, autobiographical, ethical and religious. All seven provided some useful data, but only the ones relating to math and ethics produced results clear enough to give a vivid picture of the way the simple and the complex, the subjective and the objective intertwine. Regardless of their content, statements that the subjects believed lit up the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), a location in the brain best known for processing reward, emotion and taste. Equally "primitive" areas associated with taste, pain perception and disgust determined disbelief. "False...
...current paper recovers Harris's identity as a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at UCLA, his occupation before he commenced what he calls his "extramural affair jumping into trenches in the culture wars." It is an addition to the growing field of brain scan trials, and Harris thinks it may be the first to detail how the brain processes belief. At first read, it seems less dangerous to Christianity than to another cherished pillar of Western thought - that "objective" beliefs like "2 + 2 = 4" and "subjective" beliefs like "torture is bad" belong to entirely separate categories of thought...
Harris and two co-authors ran 360 statements by 14 adult subjects whose brain activities were then scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) devices. It suggests that within the brain pan, at least, the distinction between objective and subjective is not so clear-cut. Although more complex assertions may get analyzed in so-called "higher" areas of the brain, all seem to get their final stamp of "belief" or disbelief in "primitive" locales traditionally associated with emotions or taste and odor. Even "2 + 2 = 4," on some level, is a question of taste. Thus, the statement "that just doesn...
...heroin users. Although there is little scientific evidence that naxolone distribution programs saves lives—a favorite point of critics—estimates suggest that such programs have saved 1,000 lives since they were first introduced. Because a heroin overdose shuts down the part of the brain responsible for controlling breathing, waiting for the paramedics to arrive to inject naloxone wastes precious minutes during which a person stops breathing. Quite simply, naxolone distribution programs deserve to be supported on the federal level for their potential to save lives, which should be the first aim of governments when approaching...
Disconnected links in brain may cause dyslexia A Harvard study has suggested a physical basis for dyslexia. The team mapped the brains of six sufferers of the genetic disorder periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH), who show many of the symptoms of dyslexia. A normal brain has grey matter or nerve cells near its surface and white matter which connects the grey matter deeper inside. The team found that the brains they imaged were more disordered. They posited that this was the cause of reduced fluent reading skills.The study was led by Harvard Medical School professor Christopher A. Walsh, Beth Israel Deaconess...