dead fish wins igNobel

[Roger Critchlow-2]

Like a smell in your refrigerator that won't go away, the fMRI study of empathy in dead salmon, http://www.jsur.org/v1n1p1, has resurfaced again to claim the 2012 igNobel prize for neuroscience.

-- rec --

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[Robert Holmes-3]

I don't get why this is an igNobel. The researchers are showing that the standard statistical tests used in fMRI studies give nonsensical results (namely, the dead salmon "showed active voxel clusters in the salmon’s brain cavity and spinal column"). In contrast, when they use their proposed correction, it didn't.

Showing that the statistical methodology of an entire field is fundamentally flawed is a big deal. And given that this field is making its appearance in courtrooms (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100317/full/464340a.html) it is a *very* big deal.

—R

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 12:30 PM, Roger Critchlow <[hidden email]> wrote:

Like a smell in your refrigerator that won't go away, the fMRI study of empathy in dead salmon, http://www.jsur.org/v1n1p1, has resurfaced again to claim the 2012 igNobel prize for neuroscience.

-- rec --

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org