Beware neuro-bunkBrains are ubiquitous in modern marketing: Headlines proclaim cheese sandwiches help with decision-making, while a “neuro” drink claims to reduce stress. There’s just one problem, says neuroscientist Molly Crockett: The benefits of these "neuro-enhancements" are not proven scientifically. In this to-the-point talk, Crockett explains the limits of interpreting neuroscientific data, and why we should all be aware of them.
1,389,513 views | Molly Crockett • TEDSalon London Fall 2012Neuroscientist
Neuroscientist Molly Crockett studies altruism, morality and value-based decision-making in humans.
Joseph Geni, Translator
Morton Bast, Reviewer
00:00
I'm a neuroscientist, and I study decision-making. I do experiments to test how different chemicals in the brain influence the choices we make.
00:10
I'm here to tell you the secret to successful decision-making: a cheese sandwich. That's right. According to scientists, a cheese sandwich is the solution to all your tough decisions.
00:26
How do I know? I'm the scientist who did the study.
00:31
A few years ago, my colleagues and I were interested in how a brain chemical called serotonin would influence people's decisions in social situations. Specifically, we wanted to know how serotonin would affect the way people react when they're treated unfairly.
00:46
So we did an experiment. We manipulated people's serotonin levels by giving them this really disgusting-tasting artificial lemon-flavored drink that works by taking away the raw ingredient for serotonin in the brain. This is the amino acid tryptophan. So what we found was, when tryptophan was low, people were more likely to take revenge when they're treated unfairly.
01:12
That's the study we did, and here are some of the headlines that came out afterwards.
01:18
("A cheese sandwich is all you need for strong decision-making")
01:21
("What a friend we have in cheeses")
01:23
("Eating Cheese and Meat May Boost Self-Control") At this point, you might be wondering, did I miss something?
01:26
("Official! Chocolate stops you being grumpy") Cheese? Chocolate? Where did that come from? And I thought the same thing myself when these came out, because our study had nothing to do with cheese or chocolate. We gave people this horrible-tasting drink that affected their tryptophan levels. But it turns out that tryptophan also happens to be found in cheese and chocolate. And of course when science says cheese and chocolate help you make better decisions, well, that's sure to grab people's attention. So there you have it: the evolution of a headline.
02:02
When this happened, a part of me thought, well, what's the big deal? So the media oversimplified a few things, but in the end, it's just a news story. And I think a lot of scientists have this attitude. But the problem is that this kind of thing happens all the time, and it affects not just the stories you read in the news but also the products you see on the shelves. When the headlines rolled, what happened was, the marketers came calling. Would I be willing to provide a scientific endorsement of a mood-boosting bottled water? Or would I go on television to demonstrate, in front of a live audience, that comfort foods really do make you feel better? I think these folks meant well, but had I taken them up on their offers, I would have been going beyond the science, and good scientists are careful not to do this.
02:53
But nevertheless, neuroscience is turning up more and more in marketing. Here's one example: Neuro drinks, a line of products, including Nuero Bliss here, which according to its label helps reduce stress, enhances mood, provides focused concentration, and promotes a positive outlook. I have to say, this sounds awesome. (Laughter) I could totally have used this 10 minutes ago. So when this came up in my local shop, naturally I was curious about some of the research backing these claims. So I went to the company's website looking to find some controlled trials of their products. But I didn't find any.
03:36
Trial or no trial, these claims are front and center on their label right next to a picture of a brain. And it turns out that pictures of brains have special properties. A couple of researchers asked a few hundred people to read a scientific article. For half the people, the article included a brain image, and for the other half, it was the same article but it didn't have a brain image. At the end — you see where this is going — people were asked whether they agreed with the conclusions of the article. So this is how much people agree with the conclusions with no image. And this is how much they agree with the same article that did include a brain image. So the take-home message here is, do you want to sell it? Put a brain on it.
04:27
Now let me pause here and take a moment to say that neuroscience has advanced a lot in the last few decades, and we're constantly discovering amazing things about the brain. Like, just a couple of weeks ago, neuroscientists at MIT figured out how to break habits in rats just by controlling neural activity in a specific part of their brain. Really cool stuff. But the promise of neuroscience has led to some really high expectations and some overblown, unproven claims.
04:57
So what I'm going to do is show you how to spot a couple of classic moves, dead giveaways, really, for what's variously been called neuro-bunk, neuro-bollocks, or, my personal favorite, neuro-flapdoodle.
05:12
So the first unproven claim is that you can use brain scans to read people's thoughts and emotions. Here's a study published by a team of researchers as an op-ed in The New York Times. The headline? "You Love Your iPhone. Literally." It quickly became the most emailed article on the site.
05:35
So how'd they figure this out? They put 16 people inside a brain scanner and showed them videos of ringing iPhones. The brain scans showed activation in a part of the brain called the insula, a region they say is linked to feelings of love and compassion. So they concluded that because they saw activation in the insula, this meant the subjects loved their iPhones. Now there's just one problem with this line of reasoning, and that's that the insula does a lot. Sure, it is involved in positive emotions like love and compassion, but it's also involved in tons of other processes, like memory, language, attention, even anger, disgust and pain. So based on the same logic, I could equally conclude you hate your iPhone. The point here is, when you see activation in the insula, you can't just pick and choose your favorite explanation from off this list, and it's a really long list. My colleagues Tal Yarkoni and Russ Poldrack have shown that the insula pops up in almost a third of all brain imaging studies that have ever been published. So chances are really, really good that your insula is going off right now, but I won't kid myself to think this means you love me.
06:59
So speaking of love and the brain, there's a researcher, known to some as Dr. Love, who claims that scientists have found the glue that holds society together, the source of love and prosperity. This time it's not a cheese sandwich. No, it's a hormone called oxytocin. You've probably heard of it. So, Dr. Love bases his argument on studies showing that when you boost people's oxytocin, this increases their trust, empathy and cooperation. So he's calling oxytocin "the moral molecule."
07:37
Now these studies are scientifically valid, and they've been replicated, but they're not the whole story. Other studies have shown that boosting oxytocin increases envy. It increases gloating. Oxytocin can bias people to favor their own group at the expense of other groups. And in some cases, oxytocin can even decrease cooperation. So based on these studies, I could say oxytocin is an immoral molecule, and call myself Dr. Strangelove. (Laughter)
08:14
So we've seen neuro-flapdoodle all over the headlines. We see it in supermarkets, on book covers. What about the clinic?
08:24
SPECT imaging is a brain-scanning technology that uses a radioactive tracer to track blood flow in the brain. For the bargain price of a few thousand dollars, there are clinics in the U.S. that will give you one of these SPECT scans and use the image to help diagnose your problems. These scans, the clinics say, can help prevent Alzheimer's disease, solve weight and addiction issues, overcome marital conflicts, and treat, of course, a variety of mental illnesses ranging from depression to anxiety to ADHD. This sounds great. A lot of people agree. Some of these clinics are pulling in tens of millions of dollars a year in business.
09:11
There's just one problem. The broad consensus in neuroscience is that we can't yet diagnose mental illness from a single brain scan. But these clinics have treated tens of thousands of patients to date, many of them children, and SPECT imaging involves a radioactive injection, so exposing people to radiation, potentially harmful.
09:38
I am more excited than most people, as a neuroscientist, about the potential for neuroscience to treat mental illness and even maybe to make us better and smarter. And if one day we can say that cheese and chocolate help us make better decisions, count me in. But we're not there yet. We haven't found a "buy" button inside the brain, we can't tell whether someone is lying or in love just by looking at their brain scans, and we can't turn sinners into saints with hormones. Maybe someday we will, but until then, we have to be careful that we don't let overblown claims detract resources and attention away from the real science that's playing a much longer game.
10:27
So here's where you come in. If someone tries to sell you something with a brain on it, don't just take them at their word. Ask the tough questions. Ask to see the evidence. Ask for the part of the story that's not being told. The answers shouldn't be simple, because the brain isn't simple. But that's not stopping us from trying to figure it out anyway.
10:52
Thank you. (Applause)
dahong zhang, Translator
Cheng Sha, Reviewer
00:00
我是位神经学家，我研究决策制定 我做了一些试验，来测试大脑中不同的化学物质 如何影响我们所作的选择
00:10
我在这里是要告诉你们制定成功决策的秘诀： 一个奶酪三明治 没错。据科学家所言，奶酪三明治 是解决一切艰难决定的良伴
00:26
我是怎么知道的呢？因为我就是做这个研究的科学家。
00:31
几年前，我和我的同事们对此产生兴趣—— 大脑中一种称为血清素的化学物质 如何影响人们在社会情境下所做的决定 具体来讲，我们想知道，血清素如何影响 人们在遭到不公待遇时的反应
00:46
所以我们做了一项试验 通过提供这种极其难喝的柠檬味饮料 来操控人们的血清素水平 其原理是带走大脑中制造血清素 的原料 也就是色氨酸 我们的发现是，当色氨酸（含量）低时， 人们更倾向于采取报复（行为） 来应对不公平待遇
01:12
这就是我们所做的实验。这里有一些新闻标题 是后来报道的：
01:18
（“强有力的决策制定只需要一个奶酪三明治”）
01:21
（“奶酪，我们何等亲爱的朋友”）
01:23
（”吃奶酪和肉会增强自控“）这一点，你可以会疑惑：我遗漏了些什么吗？
01:26
（“官方消息！巧克力可以阻止坏脾气”） 奶酪？巧克力？这都是从哪来的？ 当这些（新闻）报道后，我自己也有同样的想法 因为我们的试验与奶酪和巧克力无关 我们给人们这种难喝的饮料 它会影响他们的色氨酸水平 但我们发现，色氨酸也恰好存在于 奶酪与巧克力中 当然，《科学》杂志声称奶酪与巧克力 能帮助人做出更好的决定，这必然会吸引眼球 所以你们现在明白了： 这是新闻标题的“演化“过程
02:02
当这些发生时，我会想，好吧 这有什么大不了的？ 媒体过度简化了一些东西，但说到底 它只是一则新闻故事而已 我想很多科学家都有这样的态度 但问题是，这样的事情总在发生 它们不仅会影响你所读到的新闻故事 还会影响你在货架上所见的商品 当这些新闻发布之后，(接下来)会发生的是 营销人员打电话过来 问我愿不愿意提供一份科学认证 证明某种瓶装水具有改善情绪的功能 或者问我是否愿意参加电视节目 面对一群现场直播的观众 证明安抚性的食品真的能够让你感觉更棒 我想这些人的出发点是好的，但是如果我接受了他们的邀请 我就是在逾越科学的界限 好的科学家会谨慎地避免这种做法
02:53
然而尽管如此，神经科学正在越来越多地出现在市场中 例如：神经性饮料 一系列产品，包括这种叫做”神经福佑“（Neuro Bliss）的饮料 它的标签上注明能够帮助减轻压力 改善情绪，提高注意力 促进乐观态度 不得不说，这听起来很棒（笑声） 十分钟前我要是喝上一瓶就好了 当这些产品出现在我家附近的商店时 我自然想弄清楚有哪些科学研究支持着这些说法 因此我浏览了这家公司的网站 寻找他们产品的对照实验 但我一个都没找到
03:36
不管有没有实验，这些宣传说法都非常抢眼醒目 写在标签上，围绕着一张画有大脑的图片 事实上，那些大脑的图片是有特殊功能的 一组科研人员请几百人 读一篇科学论文 一半的人，所读文章配有一幅大脑图片， 另一半人，读同样的文章 但是没有配大脑图片 最终 — 您知道是要干什么 — 参试人员被提问 是否赞同文章的结论 这是人们对文章结论的赞同程度 这是没有图片的那个对照组 这是人们对同样一篇文章结论的赞同程度 是有图片的那个对照组 因此值得深思的结论就是 想要卖得好？那就放上一张大脑图片
04:27
这里我要暂停一下，来谈谈 神经科学在近几十年里取得的许多进步 我们不断地发现一些惊人的事实 有关大脑 比如：几周前，麻省理工学院的神经科学家 弄清了如何打破老鼠的生活习性 只需控制鼠脑中一个特定区域的神经活动就能实现 这些都很酷 但神经科学给人的希望，也带来了一些 过高的期望和一些夸大的，未经证实的说辞
04:57
所以我要展示的就是 如何识别一些经典花招——是的我要彻底揭秘—— 它们统称为“神经骗局” “神经吹牛”，或我的最爱“神经瞎话”
05:12
第一个未经证明的说辞就是你可以通过扫描人脑 来读取人们的想法和情绪 这里是一队科研人员发表的研究 发表在纽约时报的专栏里 标题是？“你爱你的iPhone。真的。” 这篇文章很快成为该网站转发最多的文章
05:35
那么他们是如何得出结论的呢？ 他们把16个人放入大脑扫描仪中 让他们看iPhone振铃的视频 扫描仪显示了大脑中一个区域的活动 这个区域被称作脑岛 他们认为这个区域与爱和同情的感受相关 因此他们得出结论，看到了脑岛的活动 就意味着受试者对他们的iPhone有爱意 这个推理过程只有一个问题—— 脑岛有很多活动 确实，脑岛与正面情绪有关 比如爱和同情心 但脑岛也与很多其他事情相关 例如记忆，语言，注意力 甚至愤怒，厌恶和痛感 因此，基于同样的逻辑，我也可以推断说 你恨你的iPhone 重点是，当您看到脑岛中的活动时 您不能只挑感受列表上您喜欢的解释 这个列表实在有很多选项 我的同事Tal Yarkoni和Russ Poldrack 已经证明，几乎三分之一已发表的的脑成像研究 都与脑岛有关 很有可能 你们的脑岛现在正在活动 不过，我不会骗自己说 这意味着你们爱我
06:59
所以说到爱与大脑 有个研究者，被某些人成为“爱博士”(Dr. Love) 他声称科学家已经找到一种粘合剂 能够将社会融为一体 是爱与繁荣之源 这次，不再是奶酪三明治 是的，这次是一种叫做催产素的激素。 您可能听说过 Dr. Love论证是基于如下研究 当人体内催产素水平得到提升后 人们的互信，共感，和合作也会增强 所以他称催产素为“道德分子”
07:37
现在这些研究是科学有效的 而且已经得到推广，但这并不是故事的全部 其他研究已经表明，增加催产素 也会增加嫉妒心，增加幸灾乐祸感 催产素会导致人们为了自身群体的利益 损害其他群体的利益 在某些情况下，催产素甚至会导致合作减少 所以基于这些研究，我可以说催产素 是“不道德分子”，并叫我自为“奇爱博士"（电影Dr. Strangelove） （笑声）
08:14
所以我们看到新闻标题里充斥着“神经胡说” 我们可以在超市，图书封面看到这些 那诊所呢？
08:24
SPECT成像，是一种脑扫描技术 用放射性示踪剂 跟踪脑部血液流动 由于价格是几千美元 在美国有些诊所 给您做SPECT扫描，利用成像结果 帮助诊断您的问题 诊所声称这些扫描能够帮助 防止老年痴呆症 解决体重和上瘾问题 解决婚姻冲突 还能治疗各类精神问题 从抑郁到焦虑到多动症 听起来很棒，很多人同意 这些诊所每年吸金 数千万美元
09:11
但有个问题 在神经科学中的广泛共识是 我们还不能从单独的脑扫描中 诊断精神疾病 但是到目前为止这些诊所已经治疗了 数万病人 很多还是儿童 SPECT成像是将放射性物质注射到体内 把人们暴露在放射性物质之下，会有潜在危害
09:38
作为一名神经科学家，我对此更为兴奋 神经科学治疗精神疾病具有很大潜力 甚至可能把我们变得更好更聪明。 如果某一天，我们可以说奶酪和巧克力 能够帮助我们更好地决策，我也会这么说 但我们目前还未能取得这样的成果 对于商品，从脑扫描我们还没有找到“购买”按钮 对于爱情，从脑扫描我们还不能区分爱与不爱 还不能单单从脑扫描作出判断 也不能通过激素让罪人变成圣人 也许，将来有可能，但在此之前 我们必须要小心，不能让夸大吹牛 减损对真正的科学的资源和注意力 只有科学能够经久不衰
10:27
所以这是你们需要做的 如果有人兜售有大脑图案的东西时 不要只听他们说的 问些难以回答的问题，问有何证据 问出事情隐藏的细节 这个答案并不会简单，因为大脑本身就不简单 但不管怎样，这并未阻止我们对它的探索
10:52
谢谢。（掌声）
Molly Crockett: Beware neuro-bunk | TED Talk
