This does that...

While this beautifully balanced satirical news piece claiming gay scientists have identified a Christian gene is delightfully humorous, it also taps a recurring theme in neuroscience, that there are easily attributable causal links between a bit of brain or DNA and behaviour. This is well exemplified by the modulation of memory where the idea of a ‘memory store’ which translates into an actual brain region where memories are banked is simply fanciful. The reality is that there are several functional loops involving dopaminergic midbrain areas for rewarding memories or the amygdala for emotional ones which along with the hippocampus and other regions dictate the encoding and consolidation of memories through processes yet to be fully elucidated. This is the reality across neuroscience, and any claim 'there’s a brain area for that' is a gross oversimplification.