Principal Investigators:Erik Parens and Josephine Johnston
Funder:The Dana Foundation
Purpose
Brain imaging technologies such as SPECT, PET, and MRI play an increasingly important role in the study of human psychology, from normal cognition to neuropsychiatric illness. They have already expanded basic knowledge of disease processes, and it is hoped that they will facilitate diagnosis and treatment. Leading clinicians, researchers, and others worry, however, that neuroimages will be misinterpreted, over-interpreted, and misapplied in the scientific, clinical, and lay communities.
Because neuroimaging technologies are used to study a wide variety of human behaviors, ever more people—scientists who are not expert in the interpretation of neuroimages, as well as clinicians, judges, scholars, journalists, and members of the public—are encountering neuroimages in their work and daily lives. It is vital that these people understand what knowledge neuroimages can—and cannot—impart. This project aims to help in that regard.
Key Issues
What are the complexities, assumptions, and conceptual debates involved in interpreting neuroimages? For example, how do assumptions about mind-body dualism, the localization of brain activity, neural pathways, categorical phenotypes for dimensional traits, and the debates over these assumptions impact the way experts and nonexperts interpret neuroimages?
How can we communicate a robust understanding of these complexities, assumptions, and debates to a wide audience of people who are not experts in the interpretation of neuroimages?
Intended Products
A free public symposium with scientists, clinicians, judges, scholars, and journalists; an e-briefing and podcast based on the public symposium; a Capitol Hill briefing; journal articles aimed at scientists and lawyers; a project report on interpreting neuroimages and understanding the challenges and limitations involved; a book of essays based on the presentations given at project the symposium and briefing; a project Web page.
Steering Committee
Goeffrey Aguirre, MD, PhD
University of Pennsylvania
Martha Farah, PhD
University of Pennsylvania