The Limits of fMRI and Science Journalism


	The Limits of fMRI and Science Journalism

Djiezes

6-30-2008 8:51 AM

256 views

tags:

neuroscience, science, fmri, mri, brain, journalism, popularism

Add a Comment

Login to Comment. Not a member yet? Sign up

View the Top Clips from June 30, 2008

Embed This Clip In Your Site...

<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/57fb522a-cd89-4518-94f4-0b81ba2153e6/D1259A06-E25E-48D9-8528-DD44785894FD/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/06/must_read_paper_on_fmri_and_th.php" href="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/06/must_read_paper_on_fmri_and_th.php" style="font-size: 11px;">scienceblogs.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/06/must_read_paper_on_fmri_and_th.php"><H2><A href="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/06/must_read_paper_on_fmri_and_th.php" id="a080430">Must Read Paper on fMRI -and- The Worst fMRI Science Journalism Ever</A></H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/06/must_read_paper_on_fmri_and_th.php"><P>There is <A href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/3634300/What-we-can-do-and-what-we-cannot-do-with-fMRI">a must-read paper in Nature</A> about the limits of functional MRI as an experimental tool by one of its pioneers, <A href="http://www.kyb.mpg.de/~nikos">Nikos Logothetis</A>.  (Also discussed by <A href="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/06/science_criticism_fmri.php">Jonah</A> and <A href="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/06/the_fmri_smackdown_c.html">Vaughan</A>.)  </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/06/must_read_paper_on_fmri_and_th.php">the difficulty in interpreting fMRI data lies in the fact that you have to make assumptions about network architecture that may or may not be true.  Other experiments are required to confirm the validity of these assumptions.  </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/06/must_read_paper_on_fmri_and_th.php"> <STRONG>In fact, fMRI is not and will never be a mind reader, as some of the proponents of decoding-based methods suggest, nor is it a worthless and non-informative 'neophrenology' that is condemned to fail, as has been occasionally argued.</STRONG></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/06/must_read_paper_on_fmri_and_th.php"><P>As a brief digression,  I can give you a great example of an OMGFMRI.  <A href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/mri">This article by Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic</A> is some of the <U>worst</U> science journalism I have ever read.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D1259A06-E25E-48D9-8528-DD44785894FD/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>