Yes, Farah noticed, a BOLD signal is not a direct measurement of brain activity, and we do not know to which aspects of neural activity it corresponds. But the relationship between the two is strong enough to make fMRI a useful tool. Images, like graphs or maps, are indeed manufactured, but they are not fabricated. Yes, fMRI is about localization, but it is not for localization’s sake, and most neuroimaging is not motivated by it.
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Martha Farah, PhD, is a cognitive neuroscientist and the director of the Center for Neuroscience & S...
Inspired by the homonymous book by Fernando Vidal and Francisco Ortega, this timespace presents the authors' genealogy of the cerebral subject and the influence of the neurological discourse in human sciences, mental health and culture.