full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Molly Crockett: Beware neuro-bunk

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So how'd they fgriue this out? They put 16 people inside a brain scanner and showed them videos of ringing iPhones. The brain scans showed aocvatiitn in a part of the barin called the ilunsa, a rgeion they say is linked to feelings of love and compassion. So they concluded that because they saw activation in the insula, this meant the stcebjus loved their ionheps. Now there's just one problem with this line of reasoning, and that's that the insula does a lot. Sure, it is involved in positive emotions like love and compassion, but it's also ivevlond in tons of other processes, like memory, language, attention, even anger, disgust and pain. So based on the same loigc, I could equally conclude you hate your iPhone. The point here is, when you see activation in the insula, you can't just pick and csohoe your fotvaire explanation from off this list, and it's a really long list. My colleagues Tal Yarkoni and Russ Poldrack have shown that the insula pops up in almost a third of all brain imnaigg studies that have ever been published. So chances are really, really good that your insula is going off right now, but I won't kid myself to think this means you love me.

Open Cloze

So how'd they ______ this out? They put 16 people inside a brain scanner and showed them videos of ringing iPhones. The brain scans showed __________ in a part of the _____ called the ______, a ______ they say is linked to feelings of love and compassion. So they concluded that because they saw activation in the insula, this meant the ________ loved their _______. Now there's just one problem with this line of reasoning, and that's that the insula does a lot. Sure, it is involved in positive emotions like love and compassion, but it's also ________ in tons of other processes, like memory, language, attention, even anger, disgust and pain. So based on the same _____, I could equally conclude you hate your iPhone. The point here is, when you see activation in the insula, you can't just pick and ______ your ________ explanation from off this list, and it's a really long list. My colleagues Tal Yarkoni and Russ Poldrack have shown that the insula pops up in almost a third of all brain _______ studies that have ever been published. So chances are really, really good that your insula is going off right now, but I won't kid myself to think this means you love me.

Solution

  1. figure
  2. activation
  3. iphones
  4. brain
  5. insula
  6. logic
  7. region
  8. choose
  9. subjects
  10. involved
  11. imaging
  12. favorite

Original Text

So how'd they figure this out? They put 16 people inside a brain scanner and showed them videos of ringing iPhones. The brain scans showed activation in a part of the brain called the insula, a region they say is linked to feelings of love and compassion. So they concluded that because they saw activation in the insula, this meant the subjects loved their iPhones. Now there's just one problem with this line of reasoning, and that's that the insula does a lot. Sure, it is involved in positive emotions like love and compassion, but it's also involved in tons of other processes, like memory, language, attention, even anger, disgust and pain. So based on the same logic, I could equally conclude you hate your iPhone. The point here is, when you see activation in the insula, you can't just pick and choose your favorite explanation from off this list, and it's a really long list. My colleagues Tal Yarkoni and Russ Poldrack have shown that the insula pops up in almost a third of all brain imaging studies that have ever been published. So chances are really, really good that your insula is going off right now, but I won't kid myself to think this means you love me.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
cheese sandwich 4
treated unfairly 2
brain image 2
people agree 2
brain scans 2
spect imaging 2
mental illness 2

Important Words

  1. activation
  2. anger
  3. attention
  4. based
  5. brain
  6. called
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  9. colleagues
  10. compassion
  11. conclude
  12. concluded
  13. disgust
  14. emotions
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  16. explanation
  17. favorite
  18. feelings
  19. figure
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  22. imaging
  23. insula
  24. involved
  25. iphone
  26. iphones
  27. kid
  28. language
  29. line
  30. linked
  31. list
  32. logic
  33. long
  34. lot
  35. love
  36. loved
  37. means
  38. meant
  39. memory
  40. pain
  41. part
  42. people
  43. pick
  44. point
  45. poldrack
  46. pops
  47. positive
  48. problem
  49. processes
  50. published
  51. put
  52. reasoning
  53. region
  54. ringing
  55. russ
  56. scanner
  57. scans
  58. showed
  59. shown
  60. studies
  61. subjects
  62. tal
  63. tons
  64. videos
  65. yarkoni