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. This book, 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. These promising, empirical experiments are consistent with the philosophy of Pragmatism which, in judging hypotheses about understanding by their consequences, has questioned the value of everyday conceptualizations of brain activity for imaging studies.

About the Author
Robert G. Shulman is a biophysicist who has pioneered the use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and other spectroscopic techniques in Physics, Biochemistry and brain imaging. His original studies creative 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 Scienves and of the Institute of Medicine.

Reviews
[Shulman] is a true pioneer of MRI ... his new book is fascinating, enlightening, provocative. Shulman invites the reader into his mind - and for such a reflective and accomplished thinker and scientist, this is a rare and valuable priviledge. * Trends in Cognitive Sciences *
Recommended. * K.G. Akers, CHOICE *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199838721
Author Robert G. Shulman
Format Hardback
Page Count 180
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 458g
Dimensions(mm) 157mm * 234mm * 20mm