Critique and Careful Interpretation
Functional neuroimaging studies have to be carefully designed and interpreted with care. Statistical analysis (often using a technique called statistical parametric mapping) is often needed so that the different sources of activation within the brain can be distinguished from one another. This can be particularly challenging when considering processes which are difficult to conceptualise or have no easily definable task associated with them (for example belief and consciousness).
Functional neuroimaging of interesting phenomena often gets cited in the press. In one case a group of prominent functional neuroimaging researchers felt compelled to write a letter to New York Times in response to an op-ed article about a study of so-called neuropolitics.
They argued that some of the interpretations of the study were "scientifically unfounded".
Read more about this topic: Functional Neuroimaging
Famous quotes containing the words critique and/or careful:
“In its artless cruelty, Dallas is superior to any “intelligent” critique that can be made of it. That is why intellectual snobbery meets its match here.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“I would hope that parents and grown children could be friends. When a friend confides in you that she’s going to do something that you think is most inappropriate, foolhardy or even dangerous, wouldn’t you as a friend say so—in a calm, supportive way? Yet I have to be so careful what I say to my children. I have to walk on eggs to be sure I’m not hurting their feelings or interfering with their lives.”
—Anonymous Parent of Adult Children. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 5 (1978)