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 Magnets 'can modify our morality'

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sky otter
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sky otter


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PostSubject: Magnets 'can modify our morality'   Magnets 'can modify our morality' Icon_minitimeFri Apr 02, 2010 9:11 pm

:can't understa

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8593748.stm

Magnets 'can modify our morality'

How complex is our sense of morality?
Scientists have shown they can change people's moral judgements by disrupting a specific area of the brain with magnetic pulses.

They identified a region of the brain just above and behind the right ear which appears to control morality.

And by using magnetic pulses to block cell activity they impaired volunteers' notion of right and wrong.

The small Massachusetts Institute of Technology study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Lead researcher Dr Liane Young said: "You think of morality as being a really high-level behaviour.

"To be able to apply a magnetic field to a specific brain region and change people's moral judgments is really astonishing."

The key area of the brain is a knot of nerve cells known as the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ).

The researchers subjected 20 volunteers to a number of tests designed to assess their notions of right and wrong.

In one scenario participants were asked how acceptable it was for a man to let his girlfriend walk across a bridge he knew to be unsafe.

After receiving a 500 millisecond magnetic pulse to the scalp, the volunteers delivered verdicts based on outcome rather than moral principle.

If the girlfriend made it across the bridge safely, her boyfriend was not seen as having done anything wrong.

In effect, they were unable to make moral judgments that require an understanding of other people's intentions.

Previous work has shown the RTPJ to be highly active when people think about the thoughts and beliefs of others.

Electric currents

The MIT team pinpointed the region in volunteers using a sophisticated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scan.

They then targeted the area using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to create weak electric currents that temporarily stop brain cells working normally.

In one test, volunteers were exposed to TMS for 25 minutes before reading stories involving morally questionable characters, and being asked to judge their actions.

In a second experiment, volunteers were subjected to a much shorter 500 millisecond TMS burst while being asked to make a moral judgement.

In both cases, the researchers found that when the RTPJ was disrupted volunteers were more likely to judge actions solely on the basis of whether they caused harm - not whether they were morally wrong in themselves.

Morally dubious acts with a "happy" ending were often deemed acceptable.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a brain expert at University College London, said the findings were insightful.

"The study suggests that this region - the RTPJ - is necessary for moral reasoning.

"What is interesting is that this is a region that is very late developing - into adolescence and beyond right into the 20s.

"The next step would be to look at how or whether moral development changes through childhood into adulthood."
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stephen Podliska
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stephen Podliska


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PostSubject: Re: Magnets 'can modify our morality'   Magnets 'can modify our morality' Icon_minitimeSat Apr 03, 2010 4:26 pm

OMG... Simultaneous sky otter.... thank YOU :)

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW......

........ when it SAID that "In both cases, the researchers found that when the RTPJ was disrupted volunteers were more likely to judge actions solely on the basis of whether they caused harm - not whether they were morally wrong in themselves."

.... GOOD, BETTER, OR BEST............ I may have DELIBERATELY and or INTENTIONALLY PROGRAMMED myself to "almost think the SAME about ........... ANY and ALL behaviors in this PLACE CALLED THE MULTI-DIMENTIONAL UNIVERSE!!!!!!! ?????

In reviewing how COMPLEX this thing CALLED LIFE is.... It was my DESIRE to SIMPLFY "my" LIFE as MUCH as HUMANLY POSSIBLE by "not taking on the OBLIGATION of having to TELL other's what is GOOD or NOT so GOOD related to any and all aspects of MORALITY so long as the BEHAVIOR has NO NEGATIVE "cause and effects" on ANYTHING or BEING ELSES that could be concidered of "being worth consideration"??????? I.E. I too don't like to TELL others (including my own kids)..... on what IS or IS not GOOD, BAD, RIGHT or WRONG..... so long as the PEOPLE around you are NOT BEING NEGATIVELY AFFECTED by the "behavior being called into question".......... AND thus.... perhaps.... I have a MORALITY issue in the "eyes of some"?????????

Anywho... THANK YOU Simultanous SKY OTTER... for GIVING me MORE WONDERFUL things to so PONDER more ABOUT!!!! clubbing clubbing clubbing clubbing clubbing
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