Handbook of Your Brain in Business: 1. Introduction 1.3 Neurobollocks!

Handbook of the Brain in Business

Table of Contents

Introduction

Neurobollocks!

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I like the term neurobollocks – the British vernacular resonates with me. If you want, you can call it neurotrash or neurononsense. I am not sure when the term arose but as early as 2007 an article in the New York Times, The Brain on the Stand [1], drew attention to the rise of neuroscience in criminal trials. Particularly those with a potential death penalty.

They trace it back to the early 1990s when brain scans were becoming more accessible following on from increased government funding in the neurosciences in the USA – the 1990s had been declared the decade of the brain. In increasing amounts of cases defendants would have brain scans and show, for example, a lack of cognitive control through impaired prefrontal cortex functioning or connectivity. This is the “it wasn’t me, it was my brain” argument.