Sublime

I count myself among a growing number of scientists who believe that the construction of self identity is not much better than the Lo-fi representations of other people we hold in our heads.

Neuroscientists sometimes refer disparagingly to these studies as “blobology,” their tongue-in-cheek label for studies that show which brain areas become activated as subjects experience X or perform task Y.

seem. They are not photographs of the brain in action in real time.

“neurocentrism”—the view that human experience and behavior can be best explained from the predominant or even exclusive perspective of the brain.

What’s Wrong With the Rorschach?, written with M. Teresa Nezworski, Scott Lilienfeld, and Howard Garb and released in 2003.

Brain scan images are not what they seem either—or at least not how the media often depict them.

When it comes to brain scans, seeing may be believing, but it isn’t necessarily understanding.

But a human brain is a flawed lens that can understand its own flaws—its systematic errors, its biases—and apply second-order corrections to them.