In The Dead Salmon Summary

Famous scientist and author David Brin once declared,” The worst mistake of first contact, made throughout history by individuals on both sides of every new encounter, has been the unfortunate habit of making assumptions.” In the Dead Salmon Study, lead by Craig Bennett, researchers intended to study the human brain and its responses to social stimuli. Before starting the experiment, the researchers tested the fMRI with pumpkin and a chicken, before settling on an Atlantic salmon. The salmon was exposed to photos of humans in social situations and was asked how the human must have been feeling. The brain organizes incoming information into voxels, which are used to make comparisons. The researcher looks at one section of the voxel and sees which other sections are activated. Looking through
Just because your reward center is activated, this does not mean that you necessarily like the person. In fact, the concept of brain mapping, which attempts to describe that one part of the brain is responsible for one specific function is flawed. No two brains are alike, and there is not one definitive part of the brain that is responsible for a predetermined function. While psychology has been argued for a long time by some to not be a science, neuroscience has not faced such opposition. Therefore, it does not have the same flaws that psychology already has. However, neuroscience sometimes makes strange statements about the unconscious based on faulty evidence. Brain imaging commits assumptions and its results should be taken with a grain of salt, as there have been false positives and its studies showed correlation instead of causation. This study, the lectures, and readings showed me the importance of correcting data to avoid false positives, the misconception of brain mapping, and the problems with brain