Mick Hartley

Here's another breathless report on the latest piece of brain-scanning research. It made the front page of today's Sunday Times:

Scientists have identified the seat of human wisdom by pinpointing parts of the brain that guide us when we face difficult moral dilemmas.

Hmm. Really?

Sophisticated brain scanning techniques have found that humans respond by activating areas associated with the primitive emotions of sex, fear and anger as well as our capability for abstract thought.

The findings, to be published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, represent a significant incursion into territory once regarded as the domain of religion and philosophy.

Dilip Jeste, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of California in San Diego, said: “Our research suggests there may be a basis in neurobiology for wisdom’s most universal traits.”

The problem with this is that, barring the unlikely possibility that they were unable to detect any activity at all with their "sophisticated brain scanning techniques", there's no feasible outcome that would suggest anything else. Of course they found some brain activity: even I, a neurobiological amateur, know that the brain is where thinking happens. Which makes Dilip Jeste's comment particularly odd – as though he thinks there was some doubt as to whether or not there might be a neurological basis for thinking: perhaps it all happens in the spiritual realm.

In fact, isn't the belief that "there may be a basis in neurobiology for wisdom’s most universal traits" not so much one of the findings of his research, but rather one of the methodological assumptions?

There might be some excuse for this if some highly specific location in the brain had been identified, but that isn't the case:

Jeste and Thomas Meeks, his colleague, found that pondering a simple situation calling for altruism activated the medial prefrontal cortex, an area linked to intelligence and learning. However, when faced with a difficult moral judgment, the brain activated other areas including those connected with both rational thought and primitive emotions.

Meek said: “Several brain regions appear to be involved in different components of wisdom. It seems to involve a balance between more primitive brain regions, like the limbic system, and the newest ones, such as the prefrontal cortex.”

So we can safely say, as a result of this ground-breaking research, that several brain regions are involved in making complex moral decisions. Which is nice, but it's a very long way from the identification of the seat of human wisdom that we'd been promised.

It's an easy option for neurobiologists, this brain-scanning business. Perform brain scans on people watching sport – "Scientists have identified the seat of sports enjoyment in the brain". Scan people sitting in a cafe – "Scientists have identified those brain structures which make people want to sit in cafes". Or people watching TV – "In a dramatic breakthrough, scientists have at last provided us with the answer to that question: why do we watch TV".

Which is not to say that this research is all useless, but given the state of our understanding of the brain, and the over-estimation of the accuracy of brain-scanning techniques, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that there's more hype than genuine science going on here.