Cognitive neuroscience and the election (NY Times Op Ed)

Sam Wang and Joshua Gold (of Princeton and Penn respectively) bring cognitive neuroscience to the US general election next week:

If decisions are lurking somewhere in the brains of undecided voters, could brain imaging methods reveal their inclinations? Not yet. Recent research has shown that when undecided voters looked at images of candidates, their brains’ emotional centers were often activated. But this reveals little information about the content of their thoughts. Such research serves mainly to demonstrate how hard it is for scientists to physically trace complex concepts like preference.