<p>While I admit that pet/frmri scanning is possibly reliable when measuring physical aspects of the body, I would like to know how reliable it is when measuring cognitive aspects e.g. emotion. How reliable and reproducible is it between different subjects and control subjects?</p>

<p>EDIT: Just to clarify, I am asking if false positives are possible when dealing with detecting non-physical elements. To be very specific, I believe that research shows that the limbic lobe is the source of happiness in the brain. As far as I know, this was determined through neuroimaging of the brain not actual physical loss of a brain part and thus loss of happiness. So I want to know what the scientific consensus is on how reliable neuroimaging can be for detecting non-physical phenomena in the brain and how certain science is that the limbic lobe is the physical source of happiness.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-21T10:17:51.483Z
Welcome! Just to clarify your question - Reliable in terms of... what? Spatial localization of activity? false positives? false negatives.... ? Also what are subjects and what are the controls? until this question is edited I vote for closure because it is unclear what you are after.
AliceD
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-21T15:16:02.813Z
There are no non-physical phenomena in the brain. Thoughts, emotions, etc... are all physical phenomena.
Josh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-21T15:20:04.603Z
I assume then you are saying that for example happiness is a chemical reaction even if there is no part of the brain specifically associated with it? Maybe associated with dopamine?
Anoop Alex
<emotion><cognitive-neuroscience><test><neuroimaging><fmri>
reliability of fmri and pet
Anoop Alex
# reliability of fmri and pet

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-05-21)

While I admit that pet/frmri scanning is possibly reliable when measuring physical aspects of the body, I would like to know how reliable it is when measuring cognitive aspects e.g. emotion. How reliable and reproducible is it between different subjects and control subjects?

EDIT: Just to clarify, I am asking if false positives are possible when dealing with detecting non-physical elements. To be very specific, I believe that research shows that the limbic lobe is the source of happiness in the brain. As far as I know, this was determined through neuroimaging of the brain not actual physical loss of a brain part and thus loss of happiness. So I want to know what the scientific consensus is on how reliable neuroimaging can be for detecting non-physical phenomena in the brain and how certain science is that the limbic lobe is the physical source of happiness.

**Tags:** emotion, cognitive-neuroscience, test, neuroimaging, fmri

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome! Just to clarify your question - Reliable in terms of... what? Spatial localization of activity? false positives? false negatives.... ? Also what are subjects and what are the controls? until this question is edited I vote for closure because it is unclear what you are after.  
> **username_2**: There are no non-physical phenomena in the brain. Thoughts, emotions, etc... are all physical phenomena.  
> **username_0**: I assume then you are saying that for example happiness is a chemical reaction even if there is no part of the brain specifically associated with it? Maybe associated with dopamine?  

---

## 0 answers

