A team of neuroscientists claims it's possible to influence people's moral judgments by disrupting a specific brain region called the the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). See the article, "Brain Stimulation Can Alter Our Moral Judgments, Study Suggests."
The study offers "striking evidence" that the right TPJ, located at the brain's surface above and behind the right ear, is critical for making moral judgments, the authors say. Have you seen anyone apply magnets with copper bracelets to help ease arthritis symptoms? You've heard about various metals such as copper being touted for health on TV or online. But recently researchers found out that the new Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study with magnets also can be used on the scalp to alter moral judgments, according to a new study.
Perhaps scientists should put the magnets inside a helmet that massages the scalp. Maybe some commercial use will be found for magnets to improve health in the future.
Also see the article, How are Magnets Used to Improve Health? "Maybe the magnets someday can be put into baseball caps to keep people from making moral judgments to harm others such as in road rage incidents or domestic violence.
Can you imagine a classroom full of disruptive kids wearing magnets on their scalp to control anti-social personality? How about using magnets to control angry outbursts from people who can't control their anger in public or in family settings--perhaps as a use for road rage, impatience while driving, or for waiting in long lines?
How do you get the people who need moral judgment altered the most to wear magnets? That's a question for scientists to explore. Can magnets be used for health? Or is it mostly hype? See, Magnets for Pain [NCCAM Get the Facts. A lot of studies revealed magnets didn't do much for pain, but now a new study showed that magnets can alter moral judgments.
A magnet produces a measurable force called a magnetic field. Static magnets have magnetic fields that do not change (unlike another type called electromagnets, which generate magnetic fields only when electrical current flows through them). Magnets are usually made from metals (such as iron) or alloys (mixtures of metals, or of a metal and a nonmetal).
Overall, the scientific evidence does not support the use of magnets for pain relief. Preliminary studies looking at different types of pain—such as knee, hip, wrist, foot, back, and pelvic pain—have had mixed results. Some of these studies, including a recent NIH-sponsored clinical trial that looked at back pain in a small group of people, have suggested a benefit from using magnets.
The majority of rigorous trials, however, have found no effect on pain. But what about magnets for another use not related to pain? How can magnets help locals better judge an action as morally right or wrong? Can magnets alter any given individual's capacity to judge one's own or another person's mental state such as intentions?
Is the recent M.I.T. study with magnets able to prove, theorize, or disprove the tested hypothesis that the right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ), which is an area involved in mental state reasoning, is necessary for making moral judgments, can be altered by magnets?
Can people across the nation in the future look for gadgets that use transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to disrupt neural activity in the RTPJ transiently? What reasons would you want to start making any magnet-type gadgets to stimulate your scalp to change your moral judgments?
Recently in two studies doing experiments, TMS to the RTPJ led participants to rely less on an actor's mental states in the M.I.T. experiment. A particularly striking effect occurred for attempted harms. For example, the actors in the experiment that intended to do harm, failed to do harm. So how did the magnets stop people from making judgments to do harm by altering their moral judgments?
So do magnets on the scalp stop people from doing harm to others? Relative to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to a control site, TMS to the right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) caused participants to judge attempted harms as less morally forbidden and more morally permissible. The study showed that interfering with activity in the RTPJ disrupts the capacity to use mental states in moral judgment, especially in the case of attempted harms.
So can magnets on the scalp stop someone from harming someone else--such as road rage incidents locally in Sacramento someday? Or does it do the opposite--alter moral judgment the other way? What did the latest M.I.T. study actually show? The study was not done locally. It was performed at M.I.T. But can the results be applied to local needs?
Should the law enforcement, government, military, or medical people in power learn about this? Will it stop wars or domestic violence incidences locally? What do you think about the idea of magnets worn on the scalp, or maybe in a hat, visor, or helmet being used to alter moral judgments right here in Sacramento in the future?
How do magnets applied to the scalp stop people from harming others by altering moral judgments? According to the April 1, 2010 MedicalNewsToday article, Magnets Can Alter Moral Judgement By Changing Brain Activity," by Catharine Paddock, PhD, American research scientists have discovered that appyling a magnetic field to a particular place on the scalp can alter people's moral judgment by interfering with activity in the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) of the brain.
If you research this study, ask yourself how this study's results might help you better understand how the brain constructs morality? The study was published online on March 29, 2010.
You can read about the study, led by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the 29 March 2010 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS. The research was led by Dr Rebecca Saxe, assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT.
The study is titled, "Disruption of the right temporoparietal junction with transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces the role of beliefs in moral judgments." The authors include: Liane Young, Joan Albert Camprodon, Marc Hauser, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, and Rebecca Saxe. PNAS, published online ahead of print 29 March 2010, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0914826107.
According to the study's abstract, "When we judge an action as morally right or wrong, we rely on our capacity to infer the actor's mental states (e.g., beliefs, intentions). Here, we test the hypothesis that the right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ), an area involved in mental state reasoning, is necessary for making moral judgments.
"In two experiments, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to disrupt neural activity in the RTPJ transiently before moral judgment (experiment 1, offline stimulation) and during moral judgment (experiment 2, online stimulation). In both experiments, TMS to the RTPJ led participants to rely less on the actor's mental states.
"A particularly striking effect occurred for attempted harms (e.g., actors who intended but failed to do harm): Relative to TMS to a control site, TMS to the RTPJ caused participants to judge attempted harms as less morally forbidden and more morally permissible. Thus, interfering with activity in the RTPJ disrupts the capacity to use mental states in moral judgment, especially in the case of attempted harms."
In plain language, why does magnetic stimulation of the head disrupt neural activity and change moral judgment? Can magnets 'make' people use altered moral judgments? Can magnets make people morally permissible? Can magnets interfere with brain activity enough to disrupt moral judgment? Can magnets control people's brains and alter decisions?
It's potentially a science fiction movie about control for political or moral judgments that has come to fruition, using magnets to disrupt mental states used in moral judgments. What is being done with these experiments? And how can the research be used for moral and ethical good? Or is it all relative to those with the power to control the use of the magnets?
What do you think of these experiments in altering judgment with magnets applied to certain areas of the head? It sounds like a paranoid's worst nightmare of someone outside controlling the victim's brain and mind.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps this research may be applied for the good of each individual--involving magnets on the outside of the head, such as in helmets? What is the potential of the results of this study?
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