02 maio 2003

CONTAMINANTES
Some fear loss of privacy as science pries into brain: Using magnetic resonance imaging machines that detect the ebb and flow of brain activity, researchers have become so good at peering into the workings of the human mind that their work is raising a new and deeply personal ethical concern: brain privacy. [...]
A marketing research company is already starting to use the machines to gauge consumers' unconscious preferences by looking at the pattern of brain activity as they respond to products or messages. Though brain scientists are nowhere near reading minds, their mounting success at mapping brains is sparking a discussion that echoes recent debate about preserving the privacy of people's genes. The issues of brain privacy, however, hold the potential for even more heat, say scientists and ethicists who are beginning to address them.
''Everybody's worried about genetic privacy, but brain privacy is actually much more interesting,'' said Steven E. Hyman, Harvard University's provost and a neuroscientist.