TOPIC 1 – Team 1TASK – Discuss the following statement. What do you think?“Brain imaging is little more than a modern day version of phrenology: Accurate? Yes.Meaningful? No”Questions from the audience?

1. WHAT IS PHRENLOGY

2. BRAIN IMAGING (SIMILARITIES TO PHRENOLOGY)

Assumes brain is the centre of the mind, and that it can be broken down into individual functional areas.

3. IS BRAIN IMAGING MEANINGFUL?

PRENOLOGY claimed to explain NEUROSCIENCE claims to explain

Broad personality type PersonalityThoughtsBehaviourFeelingsPerceptionMovementMemoryColourArtReligious Experiences

...when ever do theories like this last?

Assumes action potentials have meaning (just like phrenologists assumed the skull's physical shape had meaning). We might be observed electrical action potentials that are in fact a mere by-product of a deeper system. Like a being in space might observe the Earth's ozone layer changing, but have no idea that it is being caused by an intelligent system below.

4. DEFENSE OF NEUROSCIENCE

PHRENOLOGY BASED ON NEUROSCIENCE BASED ON

AnecdoteOutdated Pseudoscience

EvidenceModern scientific method

It's when things come together that you begin to realise there must be something more to neuroscience than there is to phenology. When neuroscience suggests an area in the brain is connected to language, and then someone has an injury to that part of the brain and loses their ability to speak, we can be more confidant in the original finding. The evidence for neuroscience is in its applicability: it actually works.