I just returned from the annual meeting of the Society for Human Brain
Mapping
(http://www.humanbrainmapping.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1). No
one presented any of the extreme misinterpretations that Satel &
Lilienfeld bring up in the book. The hyperpole they criticize is
derived completely from the world of press release science that we
live in. I attribute all this to the inability of the press to
criticize itself. They create the misinterpretations in trying to
create and push a story, and then criticize the investigators when the
interpretations get hyped.
Brain activations in fMRI are facts. The interpretation of these
facts are subject to all the strengths and weaknesses of human reasoning.
The undercurrent of the Satel and Lilienfeld book is a push-back to
the "blame the brain" explanations that keep getting overhyped and
rankle all of us. Neuroimaging is being used to support this but I
have a feeling that fMRI studies will produce findings that will cause
people to qualify the reductionist, genetic models and finally
understand how the systems work. After all, fMRI is used to image
environmental influences. There is no activation pattern to interpret
(except for resting state) unless the investigator presents a stimulus
to the subject.
Since it is functional, fMRI has embedded within it the capacity for
pushing our understanding of how the brain mediates complex function.
It keeps getting better. Five years ago, 1.5 and 3T scanner could
only image the entire hippocampus. At this meeting there were
presentations on high resolution imaging of parts of the hippocampus.
DTI imaging and spectroscopy keep getting better. Data analysis keeps
getting better. The Allen Institute was present and integrating gene
expressions with imaging is just beginning. I saw high resolution
structural scans of leukemic children from St. Jude hospital
illustrating white matter lesions that were not imaged before when I
worked there in the 1980s. The clinical applications of fMRI, DTI and
the new methods in neurological diseases is just emerging. There are
many applications of imaging in clinical neurology and neuropsychology
that have nothing to do with the God center, psychopathology or
abstract psychological functions. Five or ten years ago, I thought
the technology had run its course. It is just beginning.
It's the media hype that has to run its course. The media is
presenting a bizarre picture of the science.
Mike Williams
On 6/25/13 2:00 AM, Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
digest wrote:
Satel& Lilienfeld book (Re: Watch A Legend In Action)
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