4min chapter

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Rationally Speaking #50 - Neurobabble

Rationally Speaking Podcast

CHAPTER

The Problems With FMRI

FMRI's are actually not directly measuring neural activity. Neural activity is chemical signals and electrical potentials. So when scientists say that there was increased activity in the region of the brain, what they're doing is comparing the brain scans or the FMRI's of people who were experiencing empathy to those who weren't. The problem is even specialists make overconfident claims based on measure of irritability because they don't seem to be particularly aware of the statistical assumptions that go into making the calculations.

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