Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    Menu
    Natural Sciences
    Health
    History & Humanities
    Space & Astronomy
    Technology
    Culture
    Resources
    Natural Sciences

    Physics

    • Matter and Energy
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Thermodynamics

    Chemistry

    • Periodic Table
    • Applied Chemistry
    • Materials
    • Physical Chemistry

    Biology

    • Anatomy
    • Biochemistry
    • Ecology
    • Genetics
    • Microbiology
    • Plants and Fungi

    Geology and Paleontology

    • Planet Earth
    • Earth Dynamics
    • Rocks and Minerals
    • Volcanoes
    • Dinosaurs
    • Fossils

    Animals

    • Mammals
    • Birds
    • Fish
    • Reptiles
    • Amphibians
    • Invertebrates
    • Pets
    • Conservation
    • Animals Facts

    Climate and Weather

    • Climate Change
    • Weather and Atmosphere

    Geography

    Mathematics

    Health
    • Drugs
    • Diseases and Conditions
    • Human Body
    • Mind and Brain
    • Food and Nutrition
    • Wellness
    History & Humanities
    • Anthropology
    • Archaeology
    • Economics
    • History
    • People
    • Sociology
    Space & Astronomy
    • The Solar System
    • The Sun
    • The Moon
    • Planets
    • Asteroids, Meteors and Comets
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Cosmology
    • Exoplanets and Alien Life
    • Spaceflight and Exploration
    Technology
    • Computer Science & IT
    • Engineering
    • Inventions
    • Sustainability
    • Renewable Energy
    • Green Living
    Culture
    • Culture and Society
    • Bizarre Stories
    • Lifestyle
    • Art and Music
    • Gaming
    • Books
    • Movies and Shows
    Resources
    • How To
    • Science Careers
    • Metascience
    • Fringe Science
    • Science Experiments
    • School and Study
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Health → Mind & Brain

Scientists can tell whether you’re naughty or nice – with a simple brain scan

With a simple brain scan, researchers can now see if you've been naughty or nice - on average.

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
October 28, 2015
in Mind & Brain, News, Psychology

With a simple brain scan, researchers can now see if you’ve been naughty or nice – on average.

Connectome extraction procedure: Scientists partition a brain scan into hundreds of regions, and use a technique called tractography to extract out functional connections. Image credits: Hagmann P, Cammoun L, Gigandet X, Meuli R, Honey CJ, et al/Wikimedia Commons

The ambitious Human Connectome Project (HCP) is a global effort that wants to map all the connections between the areas of your brain and the millions and millions of neurons and see how these decide or affect your personality; basically, they want to make a map of your brain and see what goes where. As part of that project, they’ve reached a significant milestone: they believe they can figure out whether someone is good or bad… sort of.

“We have now begun to see really strong evidence of a connection between measures of brain function, connectivity and many aspects of people’s lives and personality,” says lead author Dr. Stephen Smith, a biomedical engineer at the University of Oxford.

Launched six years ago with an initial fund of $40 million, the HPC is scanning the brains of 1,200 adults with fMRI. Recently, they’ve been looking more on what happens inside the brain when you’re not focusing on a specific task, and you’re letting your brain wander. These “resting state connectomes” show how the brain reacts when its “locked and loaded” – not thinking about something, but prepared to focus should the necessity appear. But there’s more.

The brain stores demographic and personality-related information, including IQ capacity, attention span and even socioeconomic status. It could even say if you’re generally a good person or not.

In a real tour de force, they took the data from 461 scans and ran a massive computer program to map the brains in the resting state, looking at 200 different regions. They specifically looked at how these regions are connected to each other, how they ‘talk’. They then added 280 different traits to the pool of brain scan data, and for each participant performed canonical correlation analysis – a type of statistical analysis that helps reveal relationships between complex variables.

The results surprised even the researchers.

Brain connectivity patterns could be aligned on a single axis, with one end was associated with positive traits (better education, memory, even physical ability), and another end associated with rule breaking, lying and poor sleep quality. It’s incredibly impressive, says Dr. Marcus Raichle, a neuroscientist at Washington University, that scans of the brain managed to reveal so much information, tracking not only who has the better cognitive abilities, but also who has the more positive personality – of course, there will always be some vagueness here, but at least a general line was drawn. But for all the answers it provides, this study poses one very big question: which way does causality go? In other words, is it the way we lead our life that affects our brain patterns, or is it the brain patterns that decide how we live our lives?

Also, “good” and “bad” are not fixed variables, and they can be very different in different social contexts – which suggests that we need more accuracy in determining which traits are positive and which are not. Also, positive or negative traits aren’t really associated with intelligence, and it’s not clear how intelligence affects the personality.

This is just a taste of what’s to come. The HCP is full out swinging, and this data is nothing short of a gold mine. There is definitely more to come, and I can’t wait for it! We are finally charting the most mysterious place of all – the human brain.

Was this helpful?


Thanks for your feedback!

Related posts:
  1. Highly controversial brain scan predicts whether criminals are likely to reoffend
  2. Scientists scan a woman’s brain during out of body experience
  3. Our brain is hard-wired to make life more complicated rather than simple. Here’s a simple lifehack
  4. Scared? Here’s how your brain decides whether you freeze, flee, or fight
  5. Your left hemisphere can veto the right one into submission — but they generally play nice

ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • More
  • About Us

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t you want to get smarter every day?

YES, sign me up!

Over 35,000 subscribers can’t be wrong. Don’t worry, we never spam. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.

✕
ZME Science News

FREE
VIEW