So You Think You're Rational?

From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Mon Nov 26 2001 - 12:57:15 MST


I knew it! Adios Ayn Rand
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011126/sc/health_decisions_dc_1.html
 
<<Rational Decisions Guided by Emotion - Study

 
Monday November 26 11:57 AM ET
Rational Decisions Guided by Emotion - Study
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Seemingly rational decisions about ourselves that we make every day, such as whether to fasten a seat belt, are actually laden with emotion, a U.S. researcher said on Monday.

Based on X-ray images of the brains of people making decisions, a study concluded there was evidence that types of thinking considered ``rational'' and ``emotional'' overlapped, in contrast to older concepts that the mind is sharply divided, the researcher said.

``If you eliminate the emotional guiding factors, it's impossible to make decisions in daily life,'' radiologist Dean Shibata of the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York said in the study.

In the report presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, Shibata said X-rays of the brains of people in the act of making decisions that affected their own lives showed an increase in mental activity in their prefrontal lobes, the area where emotions are generated.

In addition, analysis of magnetic resonance images taken of the brains of 11 subjects corroborated previous evidence from brain-damaged subjects that the area of the brain associated with emotions play an important role in decision-making..>
 



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