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Scientists Find Brain Cells Linked to Choice

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the choice-police-soon-to-follow dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Scotsman.com is reporting that Harvard Medical researchers may have found the neurons, or brain cells, that play a role in a persons ability to choose between different items. From the article: 'Scientists have known that cells in different parts of the brain react to attributes such as color, taste or quantity. Dr Camillo Padaoa-Schioppa and John Assad, an associate professor of neurobiology, found neurons involved in assigning values that help people to make choices.'"

3 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Does genetics make our choices? by heinousjay · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Forgive me for saying so, but it seems like you had a preordained conclusion and you're just, well, twisting the article just so to support it. Actually, saying your twisting it is overstating the case, because you're really just stating it supports your case without demonstrating how.

    If I'm wrong and you actually have some connection aside from what looks to be personal prejudice against people with disabilities, feel free to post it.

    --
    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
  2. Continuum. by khasim · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Thus if we reduce all of our actions and decisions to physical phenomena, we're probably going to find that none of our actions are a matter of "choice."
    At the far extreme of disfunction, I think that that might be valid. It isn't easy to believe that someone chooses to be schizophrenic.
    Rather, the actions we take are inevitable given the exact state that our brain is in and the exact environment we are in.
    And that's the key.

    If this is valid, then the animals with the same neurological structure would make the same choices, right?

    So far, all that's been shown is that damaging an area of the brain results in failures to react to certain distinguishing features.

    Do monkeys with brain pattern X always choose apple juice? But monkeys with brain pattern Y always choose grape juice? And monkeys with brain pattern Z always choose orange juice?

    The same with choosing to gamble. Why does someone choose ponies over blackjack?
  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion