Neuroimaging

The internet makes a powerful case against those who believe the mind and brain are separate

The philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) was unfortunate. He did not have access to websites or to information from research in neuroscience, particularly neuroimaging, which we have. So one cannot blame him for thinking that the mind was distinct from the body, for initiating dualism. We have such access and need to think differently from the way he did when we look at the mind-brain problem.

I decided to take Descartes to visit some brain websites. We saw some images of the brain at the laboratory of neuroimaging at UCLA (www.loni.ucla.edu/About_Loni/index.html). Descartes appeared interested but wasn't wowed. He wanted to read about the brain in action not …