Working with neuroscientists / who use neuroimaging / to understand how the human brain works, / anthropologist Simon Cohn has shown / the extent to which scientists need / to develop personal, even intimate, relationships with their subjects / in order to secure their cooperation.

Only by enlisting subjects in a social relationship, / even if briefly, / do the researchers feel / they can depend on the subjects / to follow directions / to the best of their ability.

Strapped down uncomfortably / in a dark, noisy scanner, / subjects must nonetheless pay attention / and follow directions / in order to produce data / the researchers can use.

Before the subjects ever enter the scanner, / researchers provide them / with reassurance and sympathy / and share personal experiences, / creating a subjective alliance / between researcher and subject.

Although these tactics might influence / the specific subjective experiences / revealed in the scanner, / they are carefully eliminated / from the experimental reports / so that only the signals from subjects' brains / in response to stimuli in the scanner / come to light.