Are we our brain?

What does the ambient "neuromania" reveal?

Anyone who has consulted media in the last few years must have noticed, in the science news section, that now everything would be explainable by the brain. Whether it is why we like fat, look at Facebook or that we are indolent in front of the climate crisis, everything would start from our gray matter. But, as neuroscience doctor Albert Moukheiber explains, this "neuromania" does not come with only good things.

Already, the world of neuroscience has long peddled misconceptions. Phrenology, for example, which divided the brain into multiple areas for every aspect of the human, whereas today, specialists know that it functions as a network. It is true that MRI images can show (through a game of comparisons) cerebral activities, but they remain fragmentary. Especially since, as Mr. Moukheiber points out, the context of consulting a social network in an MRI machine has nothing to do with everyday life, on the bus or with friends. Natural phenomena are often considered a godsend when it is not that simple. For example, the plasticity of the brain has always been present and is constantly present. If it were not, we would never be able to register new knowledge.

The brain certainly has effects on our decision-making and our lives. However, this neuroscientific approach to everything is similar to the genetic ones that one could read in the early 2000s. It tries to place all the responsibility on the individual, forgetting the social and political aspects that also play into our choices.

Time: 21min36