Until recently, such topics would have been out of the reach of cognitive neuroscience for lack of methods; today, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows researchers to watch the brain «in action» as
normal human participants make decisions about responsibility and punishment.
Using magnetic stimulation to temporarily disrupt
normal processing of the areas of the
human brain involved in the production of actions of
human participants, it is demonstrated that these areas are also involved in the understanding of actions.