LOL salmon scan nabbed from prefrontal.org
What does it mean when an fMRI scanner reveals activity in the brain of a dead fish?
A: dead fish can still think about things
B: time to do some more better math
C: time for those of us who aren't neuroscientists to exercise some healthy skepticism when it comes to claims being made in the popular press for non-research-based fMRI applications (eg: lie detection)
Craig Bennett, the guy who put the dead salmon in the scanner, would say B, would definitely not say A, and probably would not say C. (update:Craig Bennett has clarified his stance in the comment section : he would say no to 'A', yes to 'B', and always to 'C'. - thanks Craig!)
* The goal of the Salmon poster was to encourage the minority of researchers who report uncorrected statistics to move forward and begin using basic multiple comparisons correction in their research. The Salmon doesn’t add anything to the technical discussion of how multiple comparisons correction is performed, it is simply a salient reminder of why proper correction is always necessary.
* None of the authors intended for the Salmon to go public in such a big way, especially before the commentary was reviewed and published. We were actually quite content to publish our editorial in a neuroimaging journal and be done with it. We feel that, fundamentally, this is an internal debate within the field of neuroimaging.
I respectfully take his points. But I was already leaning towards C before this salmon data and I'm still kind of going with it.
note: almost every story I've seen about this says that some people took the data to prove the existence of the ethereal soul. After a fair amount of searching, I still haven't found any such person.
another note: the best part of this story is that — in order to keep their variables consistent by running exactly the same kind of experiment as they always do — the researchers showed the dead salmon pictures of human people doing things and asked it what emotions it thought the people were feeling.
(thanks to Rob for the tip)
Maybe they should try looking for an ethereal sole.
Did they eat the salmon after the test?
I'm wondering about how they got the fish smell out of the MRI. Those things are claustrophobic under the best conditions.
Bennett posted his list of favourite funny things that people have said about it on blogs. Lotsa fish jokes. My favourite of his favourites is: And I, for one, welcome our new zombie salmon overlords!!
- DarkOx
Sally - I would say no to 'A', yes to 'B', and always to 'C'. Neuroimaging can tell us a great deal about the brain, but so much of our results rely on subjective interpretation by the researcher. Always take a skeptical stance on what gets reported, but know there is a lot of good work going on in the field by some very quality people.
Most of the comments on the soul have been in various forums around the internet. I have not seen a blog post yet that argued we found the salmon soul. Could still happen though...
Hi Craig! I apologize for making yet another (and belated) blog post on this story. Thanks so much for dropping by to clarify your position. I will confess that when I first read about your work on metafilter I let out a happy whoop. And your LOL salmon is priceless.
good metafilter discussion about neuroscience here.
(SM posting via remote)
d-oh. damn remote posting. I mean here: http://www.metafilter.com/87186/Signatures-of-Consciousness
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LOL salmon scan nabbed from prefrontal.org
What does it mean when an fMRI scanner reveals activity in the brain of a dead fish? Craig Bennett, the guy who put the dead salmon in the scanner, would say B, would definitely not say A, and probably would not say C. (update:Craig Bennett has clarified his stance in the comment section : he would say no to 'A', yes to 'B', and always to 'C'. - thanks Craig!) I respectfully take his points. But I was already leaning towards C before this salmon data and I'm still kind of going with it.
note: almost every story I've seen about this says that some people took the data to prove the existence of the ethereal soul. After a fair amount of searching, I still haven't found any such person.
another note: the best part of this story is that — in order to keep their variables consistent by running exactly the same kind of experiment as they always do — the researchers showed the dead salmon pictures of human people doing things and asked it what emotions it thought the people were feeling.
(thanks to Rob for the tip)
- sally mckay 9-30-2009 2:09 pm
Maybe they should try looking for an ethereal sole.
- rob (guest) 9-30-2009 5:21 pm
Did they eat the salmon after the test?
- L.M. 9-30-2009 5:25 pm
I'm wondering about how they got the fish smell out of the MRI. Those things are claustrophobic under the best conditions.
- sally mckay 9-30-2009 5:46 pm
Bennett posted his list of favourite funny things that people have said about it on blogs. Lotsa fish jokes. My favourite of his favourites is:
- sally mckay 9-30-2009 5:50 pm
Sally - I would say no to 'A', yes to 'B', and always to 'C'. Neuroimaging can tell us a great deal about the brain, but so much of our results rely on subjective interpretation by the researcher. Always take a skeptical stance on what gets reported, but know there is a lot of good work going on in the field by some very quality people.
Most of the comments on the soul have been in various forums around the internet. I have not seen a blog post yet that argued we found the salmon soul. Could still happen though...
- Craig Bennett (guest) 9-30-2009 6:56 pm
Hi Craig! I apologize for making yet another (and belated) blog post on this story. Thanks so much for dropping by to clarify your position. I will confess that when I first read about your work on metafilter I let out a happy whoop. And your LOL salmon is priceless.
- sally mckay 9-30-2009 8:17 pm
good metafilter discussion about neuroscience here.
(SM posting via remote)
- anonymous (guest) 12-07-2009 7:02 pm
d-oh. damn remote posting. I mean here: http://www.metafilter.com/87186/Signatures-of-Consciousness
- anonymous (guest) 12-07-2009 7:03 pm