BS 132 William Uttal on the limitations of brain imaging

Brain Science with Ginger Campbell, MD: Neuroscience for Everyone

Ginger Campbell, MD

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Neuroscience, Medicine, Brain, Science

4.8 • 896 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2017

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. William Uttal first appeared on the Brain Science Podcast back in 2012. He was a long time critic of over reliance of certain types of brain imaging, especially fMRI, in cognitive neuroscience. Sadly, he died in February 2017, so in his honor I am replaying that original interview. The points he made are just as relevant now as they were 5 years ago.

Links and References

Uttal, W. R. (2011) Mind and Brain: A Critical Appraisal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Uttal, W. R. (2009) Neuroscience in the Courtroom: What Every Lawyer Should Know About the Mind and the Brain.
Ihnen, S. K. Z., Church, J. A.. Petersen, S. E., & Schlaggar, B.L. (2009) Lack of generalizability of sex difference in the fMRI Bold Activity associated with language processes in adults. NeuroImage, 45, 1020-1032.
Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False". PLoS Medicine 2 (8): e124.
BSP 46: How fMRI works.

Announcements

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Brain Science. This is episode 132 and I'm your host Dr. Ginger Campbell.
0:09.0	The main goal of Brain Science is to explore how recent discoveries in
0:14.2	neuroscience are helping unravel the mystery of how our brains make us
0:18.8	human. But today's episode is actually a sobering reminder of the limits of human knowledge.
0:26.1	I want to take a moment to express my sympathy to the friends and family of Dr. William Udall,
0:32.4	who passed away on February 9, 2017 at the age of 83.
0:38.0	Dr. Udall was a vigorous critic of what he saw as growing over-reliance on brain imaging in cognitive science.
0:47.0	Today, in his honor, I'm going to replay the interview I originally did with him back in 2012. It's a little technical, but I think his thoughts are even more relevant today.
0:58.0	But before that, I want to try something new. I'm going to play a bit of audio feedback from a listener.
1:06.0	Hi Dr. Campbell, my name is Rebecca Reznick.
1:08.3	I'm a psychologist in Bethesda, Maryland.
1:11.0	My husband is Philip Reznick.
1:12.3	He's a linguistics researcher at
1:14.5	University of Maryland. We love brain science. I can't tell you how many hours of
1:19.8	joy and inspiration and exciting conversation we've gotten from listening to it.
1:25.0	I listen to you when I go jogging
1:28.0	and I've heard so many of your podcasts,
1:31.0	like, you know, three and even four times for Jack Panks up because I love
1:34.3	him and just always know that people out there really love your work and
1:38.7	really really appreciate it. So thanks to Rebecca Rez, she was the very first person to leave audio feedback at
1:47.2	SpeakPike.com forward slash Doc Artemis. I will tell you more about this after the interview but don't forget you can also send
1:56.8	me email at brain science podcast at gmail dot com and you'll find show notes and episode transcripts at brain at
	...

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