Magnets Can Manipulate Morality

Scientists at MIT have developed a device that utilizes powerful magnetic fields to scramble the moral center of the brain, making it harder for people to distinguish between morally right from wrong. Liane Young, a co-author of the paper and a scientist at MIT first had to use magnetic resonance imaging to locate the area of the brain associated with moral judgment. Her colleagues and she discovered that the right temporo-pariental junction (RTPJ) was largely responsible for this. After developing their device to scramble the moral center of the brain, they conducted experiments in which subjects read several different stories about people with good or bad intentions that resulted in a variety of outcomes. For example, in some stories, a boyfriend leads his girlfriend across a bridge. However, sometimes he has no ill intentions and other times he has the intention to of leading her along so that she breaks her ankle. After reading the story, subjects were instructed to grade the story based on a seven point scale, with one point being forbidden and seven being completely permissible. As the subjects read the story, scientists applied magnetic fields via the device through a method known as transcranial-magnetic stimulation. The magnetic fields create confusion in the neurons that make up RTPI and cause them to quickly and chaotically fire off electrical pulses. This made it more difficult for the subjects interpret the boyfriend’s intent and focus more on the bad outcome. The effect of the magnetic field is not permament. In other cases, scientists did not apply a magnetic field, allowing the subjects to focus more on the boyfriends good intentions. Scientists hope this technology will better able not only neuroscientists, but also jurors of the court as well.

Source: http://news.discovery.com/tech/magnet-brain-morality.html

This is a re-post for Nathan Poon

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