As I’ve been writing some about in past posts ("My Brain Made Me Do It!", "A Diagnosis the DSM-5 Forgot—Physics Envy"), we need to be very smart when it comes to all the hoopla about the brain these days. Even though most of the neuroscientists are themselves cautious in how they interpret their findings, they have little control over what others do with them. So, by the time it gets to us regular folks, what we get to hear about is the latest brain research discovery that explains everything.
It generally works like this. Researchers in a neuroscience lab observe, in a controlled and isolated study, a correlation between, say, an “emotion” and a brain location or process. Good (and ethical) scientists don’t make a big deal of it—and they especially don’t jump from correlation to causality. But others do, and they can soar to ridiculous heights—as delightfully illustrated in this comic strip from a great website, PhD Comics…
"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com
Sure, it’s funny. And accurate—up to a point. Some main characters are left out of the story cycle. They’re the professionals (the scientists and social scientists and science writers) who should know better.