Rafael Yuste, researcher at Columbia University and a leader of the project which the White House has chosen to sponsor, explains the President's proposal to map brain activity and how his work fits into the White House's vision, and takes your calls on what you think.
Comments [21]
I hope this does not involve live animal experiments. This is a practice eradicated in many other US universities, please, ¡do put us on the rearguard once again!
The Dr. cavalierly noted that we need to develop non-invasive techniques to study human brains, but invasive techniques on animals are okay. Human pain=bad; (lots and lots of) non-human pain=good. I love brain science, but that's just creepy.
@Rich_P- Agreed. Brian is terrific, his lack of scientific knowledge (although perhaps knowledge of philosophy is more relevant here) notwithstanding. I just found it amusing to hear how definitive he was in concluding that machines were incapable of emotions, namely love.
They're pushing this dehumanizing scientific materialism down our throats.Nothing wrong with learning the physical and functional properties of the brain but when people and their actions are referred to as their brains then the path is being set to absolve us of any and all responsibility.It's not me who raped, killed ,pillaged etc., it was my brain!In the name of humanism we're being dehumanized.The self is going to be relegated to where the soul now is-on the ash heap of history, the last legacy of a superstious ,primitive age.That is bad news indeed.
Please realize that there are other avenues of exploration to look into - Energy Psychology - Dr. David Feinstein is a leader. His website Innersource.net (right side of page) has a recent defense of EP's accomplishments written by top scientists from the likes of Harvard Medical School. Here's a website and a defense. http://energypsych.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=385
Marianna, I think we have to cut Brian some slack, he's not as scientifically literate as many would like (nor does he have to be) :-)
I'm an Engineer, ask me about Kafka and watch me stumble ;-)
Thanks to WNYC I saw this tidbit go by for review this morning:
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"How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients"
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2013/feb/20/how-drug-companies-mislead-doctors-and-harm-patients/
We have got to control our Capitalist impulses to profit off of everything, especially from the poor or the weakened.
Humans are indeed becoming more like machines -- if for no other reason than most machines today are designed to either replace or augment human brains and muscles.
@ayo
You said "This is a problem of the brain". No, this is a problem with politicized medicine and fashionable diagnoses.
I hope this guest will be on "Science Friday". Ira Flato is MUCH more equipped to ask technical/science questions. Sorry Brian, you're still my man though :-)
Brian, why do you assume that emotions are not "in" the brain?
Mapping a genome does not mean that there's is direct cause/effect once a genetic predisposition is found. I would think that the brain is no different. I hope I misheard Brian's question that seemed to imply as much.
what about negative use of the research results, eg, brain manipulation, military applications?
I want to have that disease where its impossible to forget. Learn all of human knowledge, and use it to make everyone rich with 0 pollution.
With 1 in 88 boys diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and these boys growing up to be men depending on the state that's not funding services for adult with autism. This needs to be a major focus of this research. This is a problem of the brain.
If Dr. Yuste explained this earlier, I missed it: Drosophila, which he gave as an example of creatures that have common features w/humans, is the genus of fruit flies. People who communicate science to the public need to remember that many people don't know scientific vocabularies.
Can Dr. Yoost discuss how treating with the hormone progesterone appears to help heal brain trauma and also strengthen brain trauma--as per recent research at Emory University?
Please please map the brains of people who are self-successes. People who use self control and self healing to get over the various the setbacks that we all suffer. The opposite of this - just the development of more drugs for people to depend on may unfortunately be the actual result.
Did Dr. Yuste really just say that "we are our brain and we have to understand our brain to understand ourselves"? Way to advance scientific reductionism that discounts all external input.
"In a nutshell" -- love it!
Hey Brian, If I had an extra $4K I'd spend it on rent and food.
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