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Pretty pictures of brains with some parts lit up: Do they convince us that scientific results are real? Do they convince us more than text or bar graphs? McCabe and Castel ask these questions in their 2008 article "Seeing is Believing" . (The above is not an actual figure. It was pirated mercilessly from a paper unrelated to this post by yours truly.) Last Wednesday, Dr. Karen Rommelfanger presented McCabe and Castel's paper at the first meeting of a new journal club hosted by the Neuroethics Program at the Emory Center for Ethics. Karen began by talking about how pervasive those pretty pictures of brains have become. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) seems to be everywhere (a good introduction to how it works can be found here ). Some companies, such as Cephos ("The science behind the truth") and NoLieMRI (who make up for their lack of a snappy slogan with their rhyming name), claim to use fMRI scanners as giant lie detectors, while other companie...

On the Neurobusiness Group website the text, " Amygdala activation can tell us from first impression whether leaders are profitable or have greater leadership ability, " is displayed at the bottom of a picture of a faceless man in a well-tailored business suit. He is standing in a ready position, tie blowing in the wind, in front of a backdrop of expansive monochromatic blue mountains. He is back-lit by sunlight, and a laser beam of light slices through the sky as if to grant him special other-worldly gifts from the heavens. The perspective is set so that you feel you are below looking up to him, as you aspire to be him, from a lower (management) position. And perhaps the most clever detail is that the man's face isn't well-defined sending the message that, "This could be your face. You can be this guy with high amygdala activation foretelling exceptional leadership ability above those with low amygdala activation." Below the described image is also a refe...

An amazing opportunity to do postdoctoral research in neuroethics in Switzerland! Post-doctoral position in Bioethics/Neuroethics The Institute for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Geneva Medical School in Switzerland is opening one post-doctoral position in bioethics. This position is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Within the project ENABLE - Protecting Vulnerable Persons in Health Care (supervisor: Samia Hurst ), the successful candidate’s work will explore characteristics identified by moral psychology and the neurosciences that may have an impact on vulnerability in clinical care. The successful applicant will have a PhD or equivalent degree, and relevant research experience in a discipline related to neuroethics. Familiarity with experimental and normative literature on moral psychology, cognitive and affective neurosciences, and ethics will be an asset. This is a research position, with protected time for the post-doctoral fellow’s own research and many o...

As part of the opening 9/11 events at Emory there was an excellent panel discussion on memorialization moderated by the Center for Ethics, Dr. Edward Queen and led by ILA’s Dr. Angelika Bammer , and Psychology’s Dr. Marshall Duke , as well as his brother, Mike Duke, a survivor of the World Trade Center attack. After Mike Duke shared the powerful story of his experience on 9/11, Dr. Marshall Duke said that, according to his studies, the sharing of 9/11 narratives have helped people expand their range of possibility, and perhaps the possibility or faith that good things can happen even after tragedy. Sharing “oscillating narratives,” as Dr. Duke put it, wherein both positive and negative narratives inform family histories, were healthier overall for an individual’s ability to cope in life. Dr. Bammer expressed concern that in the post-9/11 world we have gained a reinforcement and cultivation of fear, an ever-growing powerful feeling of an “us vs. them” mentality. One student from the a...

Are you interested in the ethical and social implications of neuroscience and neurotechnology? The Neuroethics Program of the Emory Center for Ethics is proud to announce the Neuroethics Scholars Program. The program is open to graduate students in any discipline who want to develop their interes ts at the intersection of neuroscience and ethics. Deadline for applications: October 15, 2011 Sponsored by the Emory Center for Ethics and its Neuroethics Program , and funded by the Emory Neurosciences Initiative, the Neuroethics Scholars Program is an unprecedented opportunity for Emory graduate students to become active in the national Neuroethics community. Graduate students are invited to propose collaborative or independent projects of interest to them, which could include areas such as: Developing Neuroethics curricula and co-teaching Neuroethics topics in both academic and public arenas Developing and executing interdisciplinary empiric...

Dr. David Eagleman, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author, will be attending AJC's Decatur Book Festival this Sunday, Sept 4 as part of his book tour on "Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain." Dr. Karen Rommelfanger a neuroscientist from the Center for Ethics, Neuroethics Program at Emory University will be introducing Dr. Eagleman. Dr. Eagleman is the director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. The website is cleverly named " neulaw.org " reflecting the idea that neuroscience may inform new practices in law that reduce recidivism and emphasize rehabilitation--something he calls "Rational Sentencing." Essentially, he believes, "You are your brain," and by using neurorehabilitation, he promotes a "libertarian sentencing" where criminals can rehabilitate themselves. A video of Dr. Eagleman speaking about neurolaw can be viewed below. A video of Dr. Eagleman speaking about his boo...