Magnets "can modify our morality"
That was the headline of one of BBC's health articles this morning. The article was about a small study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They used magnetic pulses which blocked cell activity in a region of the brain located a little bit above and behind the right ear. This apparently modified the volunteers' morality.
The research team pinpointed the region, especially a region called the right temporo-parietal juntion (RTPJ), a group of nerve cells considered to be the key area. By using a special technique they caused weak electric currents that (temporarily) ceased normal brain cell activity in that area. In one test, the volunteers were subjected to these pulses for 25 minutes, and were then asked to read stories. These stories contained characters that were morally questionable, and then the volunteers' were asked to judge the actions of these characters.
In the second test, the volunteers were only exposed to 500 millisecond of these electric pulses during which they were asked to make a moral judgement. One question they received was whether a man who let his girlfriend walk across a bridge he knew to be unsafe was acceptable. Their general consensus was that if the girlfriend walked across the bridge unfarmed, then the boyfriend did not do anything wrong.
Based on the result of both tests, the conclusion drawn by the research team was that when the RTPJ was affected, the volunteers were more likely to judge actions only on the basis of whether they caused harm, not if they were morally wrong in itself. What is also interesting is that apprently the RTPJ is very late in developing, it keeps on developing even a little beyond the 20s.
I think this is really fascinating research! We know soooo effing little about the brain, and something like this is like almost revolutionary, especially because this is about higher functions. I hope they keep on researching this RTPJ area, and understand more about how it functions and also how it develops. On the other hand, it's also quite scary that morality can be modified just like that!
P.S. I'm going to Edinburgh today! My sister is flying from Stockholm and then we're meeting up in Edinburgh and will spend the next three days there holidaying. BBC reports that the weather will be rainy and only a few degrees warm, but since BBC is almost always wrong weather-wise, I am hoping that they are wrong this time!
The research team pinpointed the region, especially a region called the right temporo-parietal juntion (RTPJ), a group of nerve cells considered to be the key area. By using a special technique they caused weak electric currents that (temporarily) ceased normal brain cell activity in that area. In one test, the volunteers were subjected to these pulses for 25 minutes, and were then asked to read stories. These stories contained characters that were morally questionable, and then the volunteers' were asked to judge the actions of these characters.
In the second test, the volunteers were only exposed to 500 millisecond of these electric pulses during which they were asked to make a moral judgement. One question they received was whether a man who let his girlfriend walk across a bridge he knew to be unsafe was acceptable. Their general consensus was that if the girlfriend walked across the bridge unfarmed, then the boyfriend did not do anything wrong.
Based on the result of both tests, the conclusion drawn by the research team was that when the RTPJ was affected, the volunteers were more likely to judge actions only on the basis of whether they caused harm, not if they were morally wrong in itself. What is also interesting is that apprently the RTPJ is very late in developing, it keeps on developing even a little beyond the 20s.
I think this is really fascinating research! We know soooo effing little about the brain, and something like this is like almost revolutionary, especially because this is about higher functions. I hope they keep on researching this RTPJ area, and understand more about how it functions and also how it develops. On the other hand, it's also quite scary that morality can be modified just like that!
P.S. I'm going to Edinburgh today! My sister is flying from Stockholm and then we're meeting up in Edinburgh and will spend the next three days there holidaying. BBC reports that the weather will be rainy and only a few degrees warm, but since BBC is almost always wrong weather-wise, I am hoping that they are wrong this time!
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