On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
“The subjects' brains responded to the sound of their phones as they would respond to the presence … of a … family member.”
—From an October op-ed piece in the New York Times describing a brain-imaging study purporting to show that iPhone users “loved” their phones. The Times later published a letter signed by 45 neuroscientists explaining that “there is rarely a one-to-one mapping between any brain region and a single mental state.”
COMMENT ATScientificAmerican.com/dec2011