Promiscuous Facts

The Slippery Science of Brain Studies

by Joseph Dumit

Is it spaghetti or barbed wire? Are you suffering from acid reflux?

This is the opening challenge in a Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) television commercial for Nexium, first aired in 2004. The aim of the commercial is to connect directly with the experience of heartburn sufferers so that they see themselves in the persons in the ads whom we are then told suffer from acid reflux disease, a disease that appears identical with heartburn.

Why scientists should be allowed to take brain-enhancing drugs

20% of scientists responding to a survey in Nature claimed to have used cognitive-boosting drugs, including Ritalin and Provigil (Modafinil) to enable them to perform better, sleep more efficiently, or increase their concentration or memory. These are the same drugs given daily to millions of children in the US to improve school performance. In most cases it looks like the scientists' use was either illegal or quasi-legal at best. Yet scientists should not have to take these drugs clandestinely. Instead their use should be an open experiment in the advantages and disadvantages of these drugs. Read More

How Neuroscience Can Help You Get Smarter

Your motivation and intelligence may depend on how you think your brain works. Studies of mindsets suggest that children who think intelligence is fixed give up easier. Choose your neuroscience to change your life. Read More

Joseph Dumit, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and Director of Science & Technology Studies at UC Davis. He is the author of Picturing Personhood: Brain Scans in Biomedical America.

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