A field of science can turn barren if no fundamentally new approaches to research are on the horizon. Scholars can become so trapped in their methods – in the language and assumptions of the accepted approach to their discipline – that their research becomes repetitive or trivial.
将神经科学与经济学联系起来是近几年才兴起的事情，神经经济学也尚处于雏形阶段。但其发端遵循了这样一条路径：科学革命总是起源于完全不曾料掉的地方。如果不能提出新的基本方法，任何科学都会走入死胡同。学者们将陷于现有方法——即该学科中已被接受的语言和假设——无法自拔，他们的研究也将陷入循环和琐碎的无用功。