Prof. Cornelius Borck | From neuroimaging to in-vivo histology: does a new realism in visualization threaten critical neuroscience?

Over the last couple of years, the public fascination about colorful brain images seems to have a little waned and also expectations that social neuroscience will soon replace psychology. In this situation, the availability of in-vivo histology – in itself certainly a highly valuable method to validate imaging data and to search for objective pathological criteria – may have a problematic sociopolitical effect: Offering in-vivo anatomical information of new quality may foster unjustified trust in more problematic applications of neuroimaging. The talk will discuss this issue in light of shifting trends over the last decades: The availability of new technologies for visualizing brain activity generated some 25 years ago expectations to identify the centers responsible for all psychic states and to “reduce” mental processes to neuronal states – a project spurring harsh critiques from philosophy and cultural studies. With the visualization of more sophisticated phenomena, social and cultural neuroscience emerged, replacing overstated reductionist claims by integrating sociocultural aspects into neuroimaging but kindling “critical neuroscience” to question implicit essentialist assumptions. The new realism of in-vivo histology poses the question whether it will undermine concerns about the societal applications of neuroimaging.