[extropy-chat] Slate: Brain Scans for Sale

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Slate: As brain imaging spreads to nonmedical uses, will commerce
overtake ethics? - The brain-imaging technology developed over the
past three decades - first positron emission tomography, or PET, and
more recently the faster, simpler functional magnetic resonance
imaging known as fMRI - has given neuroscience a tool of unprecedented
power. By tracing blood flow associated with neuronal activity,
scanning methods enable researchers to see how different regions of
the brain activate as a person thinks or acts. A subject, lying in a
scanner, completes mental tasks or responds to various stimuli -
solving a simple word puzzle, say, or a more complex task like
characterizing facial expressions. As the subject works, the scanner
tracks changes in blood flow to create images showing distinctive
patterns of neuronal activation. The result is a visual representation
of the "neural correlates" of various mental states.
Neurologists stress that cognitive neuroscience is still young, its
tools too rough and knowledge too patchy to predict behavior and
diagnose personality. Even fMRI, the finest-grained tool, cannot
capture events at the minute scale and lightning speed of the
neuron... some entrepreneurs and researchers are carrying brain
imaging into new, nonmedical territory that could be ethically
treacherous. Some of these uses, such as lie detection, are already
upon us; others, such as the use of brain scans to screen job
applicants, seem almost certain to be explored or developed.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2112653/#ContinueArticle