Brain Imaging: What It Can (and Cannot) Tell Us about Consciousness

Magnetic resonance imaging methods have taken a commanding position in brain studies because they allow scientists to follow brain activities in the living human. The ability to measure cerebral anatomy, neuronal firing, and brain metabolism has extended and re-invigorated hopes of understanding the role that brain activity plays in human life. The brain has assumed a central role in our thinking of the world that can be traced back to the philosophies that are expressed in psychology, religion, literature, and everyday life. Brain scientists, planning and measuring brain activities by imaging methods, have consciously or unconsciously been influenced by these philosophical views. Brain Imaging: What It Can (and Cannot) Tell Us About Consciousness, in describing the experiments using imaging methods, traces how assumptions about the nature of brain function made in planning scientific experiments are the consequences of philosophical positions. Experiments that relate brain activities to observable behavior are shown to avoid the philosophical and psychological assumptions about mental processes that have been proposed to underlie these behaviors. This analysis establishes the conditions necessary for reproducible brain responses.

About the Author :
Robert G. Shulman is a biophysicist who has pioneered the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and other spectroscopic techniques in physics, biochemistry, and brain imaging. His original studies created active fields of investigation in all these disciplines. He is the Sterling Professor (Emeritus) of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University where he formed the Magnetic Resonance Center, taught Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Literature, and was Director of the Division of Biological Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the Institute of Medicine.

Review :
"Robert Shulman is a great biophysicist who has made fundamental contributions to the elucidation of the genetic code, the use of nuclear magnetic resonance methods for determining protein structure, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy for detailing the kinetics of synaptic transmitters such as glutamate. This wonderfully illuminating book provides a new perspective on brain research in relation to consciousness." -- Maxwell R. Bennett, AO, Professor of Neuroscience and University Chair, USyd Adjunct Professor of Neuropsychiatry, USC Founding Director, Brain and Mind Research Institute, Sydney "As the trickle of psychological studies using functional brain imaging has become a flood, this new book urging skepticism towards many of the claims of such studies is greatly welcome. In a powerful, trenchant, and profoundly well-informed critique of how brain imaging is often used in cognitive neuropsychology, and increasingly in educational and legal policy, Professor Shulman, a pioneer of functional MRI, reminds us that in looking for reliable explanations of human behavior by brain processes, we are intrinsically limited to the physical world." -- Robert Turner, Director, Department of Neurophysics, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences "Few have thought about brain metabolism as much as Shulman. He's a respected scientist whose NMR studies of metabolism led him naturally to neuroimaging. He performed groundbreaking work on brain metabolism and its correlates, helping to lay the foundation for PET and fMRI. In Brain Imaging, Shulman looks back at a long career and synthesizes that work with his personal reflections on philosophy of science... If you care about brains, or about how we should learn about them, Shulman raises a host of fascinating issues." -- Colin Klein, Australian National University/University of Illinois at Chicago, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "The book remains a richly rewarding read. ... Shulman invites the reader into his mind - and for such a reflective and accomplished thinker and scientist, this is a rare and valuable privilege. Regardless of whether one agrees with Shulman, his book is important in provoking cognitive neuroscientists to question common assumptions about the practices and products of brain imaging." --Trends in Cognitive Science "Robert Shulman belongs to a rare breed. So it is not surprising that his new book, Brain Imaging: What it Can (and Cannot) Tell Us About Consciousness, is by turns fascinating, enlightening, provocative, and frustrating. Thankfully, it is also extremely well written, combining clarity, erudition, and authority across a range of topics in neuroimaging and the philosophy of science. The book remains a richly rewarding read. When discussing the fundamentals of MRI and its relation to neuronal signalling, Shulman's unusually deep knowledge shines through. Above all, Shulman invites the reader into his mind - and for such a reflective and accomplished thinker and scientist, this is a rare and valuable privilege." -Anil K. Seth, Trends in Cognitive Sciences