Working in Movement

I've posted about brain imaging numerous times in the past. Some of this imaging has in essence confirmed the ideas that there are body images in the brain, and that they are remarkably plastic. They celebrate the remarkable notion that the human nervous system is almost infinitely adaptable. And that's really good news if you find yourself in an unfortunate situation that says, "adapt or else kiss your dreams good bye." The remarkable thing is that with stuff like the Feldenkrais Method and other approaches to somatic education, the adaptability can be coaxed out of the nervous system , sometimes without too much trouble.

But brain imaging has not stopped with motor control and plasticity. Carl Zimmer today cites a Dartmouth study that goes beyond motor stuff and into social issues like how we feel about each other. I had seen the write up of the study on Nature Neuroscience a couple of days ago, but passed on posting anything about it.

But Zimmer, rightly so I think, sees a kind of danger in using brain imaging for this type of thing (the studies are concerned with observing and testing for racial bias within an experimental framework), calling easy interpretation of these scans the neuro-Rorscach effect.

This neuro-Rorscach effect is only going to become more common. That's because neuroscientists are using their scanners to probe the social brain. Most people may not have a lot of preconceptions about how the cerebellum influences motor control, but when you get into the way we feel about one another, everybody's got an opinion. [The Loom]

It's easy to oversimplify even the most mundane stuff, let alone something as complex as human motor and social behavior. But the images will keep coming from the scanners and the interpretations will multiply like rabbits on speed. This is something worth continuing to watch.