Thursday, July 10, 2008
Encephalon #49
The 49th edition of Encephalon is out at Neuroscientifically Challenged. Pieces to check out: The Neurocritic on rigor and fMRI in Science; Neurophilosophy on functional recovery after stroke; and Mind Hacks on the recent backlash against fMRI. (Yes, I don't like a lot of current cognitive neuroscience: too often all one can conclude from a study is that "x happens in the brain!" [insert love, perception, fear, desire or any other mental trait for x]. The brain is really, really, really complicated, one method with many limitations is never going to give us anything remotely resembling the complete picture).
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Dude, *nobody* in cognitive neuroscience thinks fMRI is "one method". fMRI data is always interpreted in the light of multiple sources of constraints including homologies, lesion data, anatomy, studies with tracers, other kinds of scanning, electrode recordings, etc. And good fMRI data is not simple stuff either - even though it is often simplistically reported. It seems like you're attacking a straw man. (Or are they straw persons these days?)
ReplyDeleteI will convince you yet, Doctor Spurt.
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