[ MIT News - http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/moral-control-0330.html ]
By disrupting brain activity in a particular region, neuroscientists can sway people’s views of moral situations.
To make moral judgments about other people, we often need to infer their
intentions — an ability known as “theory of mind.” For example, if one
hunter shoots another while on a hunting trip, we need to know what the
shooter was thinking: Was he secretly jealous, or did he mistake his
fellow hunter for an animal?
MIT neuroscientists have now shown
they can influence those judgments by interfering with activity in a
specific brain region — a finding that helps reveal how the brain
constructs morality.
-[Full Article]
Showing posts with label MIT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MIT. Show all posts
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Friday, July 26, 2013
Neuroscientists plant false memories in the brain
[ MIT News - http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/neuroscientists-plant-false-memories-in-the-brain-0725.html ]
MIT study also pinpoints where the brain stores memory traces, both false and authentic.
The phenomenon of false memory has been well-documented: In many court cases, defendants have been found guilty based on testimony from witnesses and victims who were sure of their recollections, but DNA evidence later overturned the conviction.
In a step toward understanding how these faulty memories arise, MIT neuroscientists have shown that they can plant false memories in the brains of mice. They also found that many of the neurological traces of these memories are identical in nature to those of authentic memories.
“Whether it’s a false or genuine memory, the brain’s neural mechanism underlying the recall of the memory is the same,” says Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience and senior author of a paper describing the findings in the July 25 edition of Science.
The study also provides further evidence that memories are stored in networks of neurons that form memory traces for each experience we have — a phenomenon that Tonegawa’s lab first demonstrated last year.
-[Full Article]
MIT study also pinpoints where the brain stores memory traces, both false and authentic.
The phenomenon of false memory has been well-documented: In many court cases, defendants have been found guilty based on testimony from witnesses and victims who were sure of their recollections, but DNA evidence later overturned the conviction.
In a step toward understanding how these faulty memories arise, MIT neuroscientists have shown that they can plant false memories in the brains of mice. They also found that many of the neurological traces of these memories are identical in nature to those of authentic memories.
“Whether it’s a false or genuine memory, the brain’s neural mechanism underlying the recall of the memory is the same,” says Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience and senior author of a paper describing the findings in the July 25 edition of Science.
The study also provides further evidence that memories are stored in networks of neurons that form memory traces for each experience we have — a phenomenon that Tonegawa’s lab first demonstrated last year.
-[Full Article]
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