EM field, behind right ear, suspends morality
Posted on March 29, 2010 by Mark Baard
Morally impaired? Photo: Eddie Van 3000/Flickr CC
This new finding,
from MIT, should cause scientists to more closely examine the risks to human
health posed by mobile phones and other wireless, personal technologies. — M.B.
MIT neuroscientists
believe they have isolated the brain region — just behind the right ear — where
moral judgements take place.
And they can suspend
someone’s ability to judge right from wrong, simply by generating a
magnetic field near the same spot where
many of us hold our cellular phones and wireless, Bluetooth,
headsets.
The researchers’
findings, announced today:
“In both experiments, the
researchers found that when the right TPJ (right temporo-parietal junction) was
disrupted, subjects were more likely to judge failed attempts to harm as
morally permissible.”
The technique used
by the MIT scientists, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), has been
described as one that creates “virtual lesions”
on the brain.
Neurostar makes a device that affects mood and behavior, from outside the head. Photo: Neuronetics
And although TMS’s
long term effects on health are not well understood (similar amounts of
electromagnetic radiation have been linked to increased cancer risk), the
treatment is becoming increasingly popular for everything from tinnitus to
depression.
The US military
also hopes to use TMS to
keep soldiers fighting, without the need to stop for sleep.
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